BENJAMIN 
SF /| ALTMAN 
Mi, COLLECTION 


MCMXXVIII 


PUT 


LRA 


[i 


i 
wil 


tH 
i 
° || 


l 


i) 


pane" 


HANDBOOK 
OF 
THE BENJAMIN ALTMAN 
COLLECTION 


THE METROPOLITAN 


Preface 


F | “HE removal of the Altman Collection in the 
spring of 1926 from the galleries occupied 
temporarily in Wing C to Wing K, where the 

collection has been permanently installed in larger 

and more appropriate rooms, has necessitated a new 
edition of this handbook. The plan of the book has 
been changed to accord with the new arrangement of 
the collection. The text has been revised, but remains 
substantially the same as in the first (1914) and second 

(1915) editions, in which the paintings were described 

by Bryson Burroughs, Curator of the Department of 

Paintings, and the sculptures and other objects by 

Durr Friedley, at that time Acting Curator of the 

Department of Decorative Arts, and William M. 

Milliken, then a staff member of the same depart- 

ment, the latter having contributed the portions 

relating to crystals and enamels. The installation of 
the collection was planned and executed by Theodore 

Y. Hobby, Keeper of the Altman Collection. 

The collection was bequeathed to the Museum by 
Benjamin Altman, who died at his home in New 
York on the seventh of October, 1913. Whether 
from a pecuniary or from an educational standpoint, 
it constitutes one of the greatest gifts ever made by an 
individual to the Museum, notable alike for the wide 


Ny 


v1 PREFACE 


range of interest it embraces and the uniformly high 
quality of its contents in whatever branch of art they 
represent. 

It was Mr. Altman’s ambition to leave to the 
people of the city with which his success in life had 
been identified, for their perpetual use and enjoy- 
ment, a collection of works of art of the highest 
possible standard. With this end steadily in view 
he acquired the treasures through which he became 
one of the most famous collectors of his day; the 
intelligence and the energy with which his ambition 
was fulfilled speak for themselves in the result. It is 
an assemblage of masterpieces such as a generation 
ago it would have been thought impossible to bring 
together in this country, and one which from the 
nature of its material will be equally attractive to the 
public and to connoisseurs. 

Mr. Altman was born in this city on July 12, 1840. 
The story of his life is a simple one, and may be 
briefly summed up as that of an unremitting devotion 
to business from the time when he was twelve years 
old until his death. During this long period he al- 
lowed himself but three real interruptions to his 
work. In 1888-89 he made a tour of the world, and 
his stay in Paris at the end of it being curtailed by a 
call back to New York, he returned there for several 
months about a year later. In 1909 he again visited 
Europe, but the visit was no longer than an ordinary 
summer vacation. These details are more than usu- 
ally interesting because they show how slight was 
his acquaintance with the masterpieces in the great 


SILER CLL LLY Np itt dif. 
Uy U; 


SOSA 


Y} ROOM 
y Uy FIFTH ROOM | 


as 


FOURTH ROOM SIATH 


WOO NS 


\ \ 
SY SEN 
N 
N 
N S 
O 
= 


44 THIRD ROOM 


FIRST ROOM 


8 
SEH 
. 
© 
O 
= 


; , 
ALALLLLALLLLLLLL YY TLL ft 
Y GY 


SN 


PLAN OF THE ALTMAN ROOMS 


Vill PREFRA 6B 


foreign museums; and as he was almost as unfamiliar 
with the public and private collections of his own 
country, it is clear that his love for works of art, and 
his desire to collect them, grew from a native instinct 
rather than from constant association or a trained 
knowledge of the subject. He made no pretension 
to being a connoisseur, but he had to an exceptional 
degree a flair for fine quality, and it was this which 
guided his collecting and made his collection what 
he left it. To be sure, he constantly sought the ad- 
vice of the experts in whom he had confidence in 
regard to purchases which he proposed to make, and 
if they did not approve he would not buy, no matter 
how much he personally liked the object. Some- 
times their disapproval followed an actual purchase, 
in which case the object in question was heroically 
withdrawn from what he called specifically his “col- 
lection,” and either disposed of or placed elsewhere 
in his house. On the other hand, however, not even 
an authority in whom he had the utmost confidence 
could persuade him to buy a thing which he did not 
himself like, no matter what its importance was 
represented to be, and thus his collection not only 
reflected his own taste, but acquired to a large extent 
the harmony and individuality which he claimed 
for it, and which made him wish to have it kept to- 
gether perpetually. 

Mr. Altman’s career as a collector began in 1882, 
with the purchase of a pair of Chinese enamel vases, 
which, for sentimental reasons, he always retained 
as the beginning of a great undertaking, and which 


Bap EIR A CCE 1X 


are now exhibited with the collection, in Room 1, 
CasEC. In the years that followed his tastes varied, 
and the character of his collection changed accord- 
ingly. Chinese porcelains he began to acquire early, 
and he retained to the last his interest in these, with 
the wonderful results that we now see. Japanese 
lacquers were at one period a favorite, but his interest 
in these was not long maintained. Those that he 
left were bequeathed to the Museum, but not as a 
part of the “collection” properly speaking, though 
_ they are at present exhibited with it. Fora time he 
purchased American paintings, and though he after- 
ward disposed of these, his interest in American art 
is shown by his bequest to the National Academy of 
Design of one hundred thousand dollars to provide 
a fund for prizes. Then came paintings of the Bar- 
bizon school and a few English paintings, all of which 
were finally ruled out of the collection, and in 1893 
he purchased the splendid Renaissance crystals of 
the Spitzer Collection. 

The final stage in his collecting, however, which 
marked its zenith, began in 1905 with the transfer- 
ence of his residence to his Fifth Avenue house, which 
was to include his famous gallery. At that time he 
owned but two Old Masters—Rembrandt’s Man 
with a Steel Gorget and the Yonker Ramp of Frans 
Hals. It is an amazing fact, and one well worthy of 
record, that with these exceptions all the paintings 
now in the collection, as well as all the sculptures 
and many of the other objects, were acquired by 
Mr. Altman during the last eight years of his life— 


‘ 


sibilities were constantly increasi 
same time he was handicapped by t 


he finally succumbed. ; ; 
-Epwarp Rol 


© 
* 
ri 
Me 
eet 
GA‘ 
‘ye = 
vite 
{ 
we 
es oy 
‘ 


Table of Contents 


PREFACE 
LIST OF Be cions 
HANDBOOK 


CHINESE oa AND eee Barge 


First and Second Rooms 
PAINTINGS OF VARIOUS SCHOOLS 
Third Room 
DutcH PAINTINGS . 
Fifth Room 
GOLDSMITH’s WORK 
Third Room 
CRYSTALS 
Third Room 
ENAMELS 
Third and Fourth (Rooms 
SCULPIURE .;. ; 
Fourth, Sixtb, eat Seventb Reger 
TAPESTRIES . 

Fourth and ae nee 
FURNITURE... 
Fourth, Sixth, ea yarn lencaae 

Rucs 
Sixth an 
JAPANESE LACQUER, SWORD-GUARDS, AND 
KNIFE-HANDLES . 
Sixth Room 
MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS . 
Fourth and Sixth Rooms 


xi 


List of Illustrations 


PAGE 


Pieeoriie Aliman Rooms. . . ... .. Vil 
FACING PAGE 

Cylindrical Vase of Garniture .. roel 4 
Famille Noire, K’ang Hsi (1662- a) | 

Covered Jarof Garniture . . arte 6 
Famille Notre, K’ang Hsi ee) 

Covered Jarof Garniture .. ey 8 
Famille Noire, K’ang Hsi (1662-1722) 

Goddess Kuan Yin. . Pi ey ee hw LO) 
Ming Dynasty (1368-164 fy 

Neees ar le 
Famille he, Payee oe one 1722) 

Hawthorn Vase .. Caneel A 
Famille Verte, K’ang ae Lee 

Petey, ee ee TG 

Famille Verte, ee ae 66x oe 

Meemeeeeewyatt,ladylee. . . .... 28 
By Hans Holbein the Younger 

MO a aw 
By Anthony van Dyck 


MMP eray © 256 
By Velazquez 7 

Meaty ee 40 
By Guorgione 


Xili 


X1V LIST OF ILLUSTRA TO 


FACING PAGE 

Portrait of an Old Man. . 92g 
By Hans Memling 

The Betrothal of Saint Catherine . . . . 46 
By Hans Memling 

Portraitofa Man  . | 
By Dirk Bouts 

The Holy Family... 
By Andrea Mantegna 

Borso d’Este (f) 2. 0. 
By Cosimo Tura 

The Last Communion of Saint Jerome . . 54 
By Botticellt 

Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart. . . . 62 
By Frans Hals 

Toilet of Bathsheba Afterthe Bath. . . . 66 
By Rembrandt 

Old Woman in an Armchair) ae 
By Rembrandt | 

Man with a Magnifying-Glass . . . . . 76 
By Rembrandt 

Lady with a Pink. . 9) 
By Rembrandt 

Old Woman Cutting Her Nails.) ee 
By Rembrandt 

The Merry Company -—".  . 7) se 
By Frans Hals 

Young Girl Peeling Apples . . . . . . 2 


By Nicolaes Maes 


“ 


Eee reo retlLLUS TRATIONS XV 


Gold and Enamel Triptych 
Milanese, late fifteenth century 
Cup of Gold and Enamel, called the 
Rospigliosi Cup . ae 
By Benvenuto Cellini 


Candlesticks of Rock eee and Silver- 
Gilt : 


German, sixteenth ie 
Tazza of Rock Crystal and Enameled Gold 
Italian, sixteenth century 
Portable Holy-Water Stoup 
Italian, sixteenth century 
Ewer of Smoke-Color Rock Crystal 
German, sixteenth century 
Rose-Water Vase of Rock Crystal 
Italian, sixteenth century 
Triptych of Limoges Enamel 
Atelier of the Triptych of Louis XII 
French, beginning of the sixteenth century 
Madonna and Child . 
By Luca della Robbia 
Madonna and Child . 
By Antonio Rossellino 
The Young Saint John the Baptist 
By Mino da Fiesole 
Bust of a Young Man 
By Hans Tilman Rakai 
Peace 
By ee ahdro V Morne 


FACING PAGE 


97 


93 


103 
104 
105 
100 
107 


116 


124 
126 
128 
130 


132 


XVi LIST OF TLULUS Tike 


FACING PAGE 


Charity... 4.0) 0 
By Jacopo Sansovino 


The Intoxication of Wine... ee es 
_By Claude Michel, called lohan 
The: Bathero. = we 


By Jean Antoine Howie 


Tapestry, Adoration of the Magi . . . . 145 
Flemish, early sixteenth century 


Tapestry, Infant Christ, syn His 


Serica 37.75 : 146 
Flemish, end of fifteenth conte 
Cabinet... wg 


French Renaissance 

Cabinet) -  . .. 2). 

- French Renatssance 

Table reste Meee 
French Ria 

Chair, English Me 
Late seventeenth century 

Rug oe kare, «he ete eee 
Central Persian, abou I A 

Silkk Animal Rug... 159 

_ Central Persian, second half a ee es 

Part of Rug, Flower and Trellis Design . . 160 
Indian, about 1580 


Prayer Rug with Raabe: from the 
Koran aa ee 


North Persian, nae I oes 


' 
lains and Snuff-Bottles 
t and Second Rooms ; 
teal 
‘ . 


Chinese Porcelains and Snuff-Bottles 


First and Second Rooms 


book to the Altman Collection the objects 

are noted in the order in which they are 
placed in the rooms, the arrangement of the Chinese 
porcelains in Rooms 1 and 2 has been necessarily 
governed by the character of the exhibits, which are 
grouped more with regard to color and effect than 
to the historical sequence of the pieces. As it is im- 
possible to give a clear idea of such porcelains without 
considering the chronological development of the 
art, it has been thought best in the account of this 
material to disregard the arrangement and to 
treat the contents of both rooms from the historical 
standpoint and as one undivided collection. Con- 
sequently, instead of leading the visitor in an unin- 
terrupted progression about each gallery in turn, he 
is referred to different varieties of material and to 
individual objects in their chronological order by a 
system of case letters and catalogue numbers. The 
lettering of cases, which is repeated in each room, 
begins at the visitor’s right as he enters the gallery 
and is applied first to the wall cases and then to those 

3 


A LTHOUGH in the other sections of the Hand- 


4 THE ALTMAN COLLE Ga 


on the floor. Numbers are given only to those pieces 
which receive special mention in the text. 


Chinese Porcelains 


Introduction 


To the Museum display of later Chinese ceramics 
the Altman Collection added four hundred and 
twenty-nine examples of porcelain, all pieces of very 
high order, typifying the best of which Chinese art 
was capable in its last brilliant period, and illustrating 
phases of K’ang Hsi and Ch’ien Lung wares only 
partly represented heretofore. As a result, Chinese 
ceramic wares are here more fully and finely illus- 
trated than in any other Occidental museum. 


Technical Processes 


Although everyone is familiar with the appearance 
of porcelain, its exact constitution is perhaps not so 
well known, and a brief statement of the nature of the 
material and the method of manufacture may aid in 
the appreciation of the vases and jars included in the 
Altman Collection. In body, Chinese porcelain, like 
all European imitations of the same ware, is trans- 
lucent, vitrified pottery, hard as a stone, very white, 
and infusible save at an exceedingly high tempera- 
ture. Examined minutely it has the appearance of 
a natural mineral which is neither glass nor rock, 
although partaking of the nature of both, a circum- 
stance due to the chemical combination of the two 


ae aes 


Sy DORIGAL VASE OF GARNITURE, NOS. 


Famille Noire 


K’ANG HSI, 1662-1722 


is 


PORCELAINS—FIRST & SECOND ROOMS 5 


chief and essential elements of which it is com- 

pounded, known as kaolin and petuntse, species of 
clay and decomposed stone, without which no true 
porcelain has yet been produced. 

The first step in the established method of making 
such porcelain vessels and ornaments as are com- 
prised in the Altman Collection is to reduce these 
two chief elements, combined with others less essen- 
tial, to a fine paste, from which the potter shapes the 
desired object either in a plaster mould or on the re- 

- volving table called the potter’s wheel. The vase or 
figure thus made is slowly dried—not baked—after 
which, if the piece is intended to be other than pure 
white in color, it is ready to receive its ornament in 
one of three ways. If the chosen decoration be of 
blue on a white background, it is almost invariably 
produced by painting the design in cobalt on the dry 
surface of the piece, which is then dipped in glaze and 
placed in the kiln, where it is subjected to the intense 
heat of the grand feu, emerging finished and complete 
in all essentials, as an example of the large class of 
porcelain termed “‘‘underglaze blue.” If, however, 
the piece is to be practically solid in color, no paint- 
ing with the brush is necessary, metallic oxides being 
mixed with the glaze, which under the grand feu 
assumes either widely variegated tints or else plain, 
deep hues of translucent brilliancy. Sometimes the 
color in powder form is blown through gauze on to 
a clear wet glaze and the result is the well-known 
“powder blue” and other colors with similar faintly 
mottled texture. Such pieces are classed as “plain 


6 THE ALTMAN COLLECGQ TI. 


’ 


colors” or “‘monochromes”’ and usually require no 
second firing. The third method is used for poly- 
chrome enamels, which, being fugitive under the 
high temperature necessary to vitrify the body of the 
porcelain, are applied on the white surface of a piece 
which has been previously glazed and fired. These 
“enamel” or “overglaze colors”’ are then fused into 
the surface of the object by one or more additional 
firings at a lesser temperature in what is called the 
“muffle kiln.””’ The Altman Collection embraces 
examples of all these methods and types. It may be 
noted here that whichever of these processes is used 
probably no piece of Chinese porcelain is entirely the 
work of one man, and that some of the more splen- 
didly decorated specimens are said to pass through 
the hands of seventy workmen before completion. 
This may very well be true of a number of vases in 
the collection. 


Historical Note 


The use of the basic materials of porcelain was 
known to the Chinese for many centuries before the 
secret was discovered by European potters, and na- 
tive tradition, which has long revered porcelain as 
a precious and half-magical substance, places the 
beginning of the art in the remote and legendary 
past. However, no known fragment of vitrified ware 
has descended to us from very ancient times and it 
is not until the beginning of the Sung dynasty in the 
tenth century of the Christian era that there is tan- 
gible proof of the manufacture of any substance 


ce 


iss Bae tia Geen eee ni ey ee 
COVERED JAR OF GARNITURE, NOS. 1-5 
Famille Noire 


K’ANG HSI, 1662-1722 


PORCELAINS—~—FIRST & SECOND ROOMS 7 


approaching porcelain as we define it. From that 
period onward through the succeeding Ytian and 
Ming dynasties the art was constantly in process of 
development and many remarkable wares of widely 
varying types were produced, until, in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, under the last or 
Ching dynasty, porcelain in China reached a state 
of excellence admitting of no improvement and mark- 
ing the culmination of an art which has steadily 
declined ever since. During this period of nearly ten 
centuries the chief center of porcelain manufacture 
has been a single city called Ching-té-chén, situated 
in central China near the hills which supply the 
necessary clays, and at times in the past numbering 
its inhabitants at more than a million souls, all 
engaged in tending the flaring kilns which covered 
the mountainsides in hundreds. A portion of these 
kilns produced porcelain for the imperial court only 
and were controlled directly by governors designated 
by the Son of Heaven to rule the province as well 
as the city, four of whom, appointed successively 
during the epoch of the greatest fertility, were pot- 
ters of remarkable genius and gave their names to 
numerous inventions which are now recognized as 
among the most noteworthy in the history of por- 
celain. | 

‘With a few exceptions all the Chinese porcelain in 
the Altman Collection dates from the era of these 
four governors and the period of full accomplishment 
in the art of porcelain manufacture when consum- 
mate knowledge of the material and unfailing success 


8 THE ALTMAN COLLE OD 


in its manipulation were combined with a vigorous 
decorative sense and a mastery of the principles of 
design. This brilliant epoch lasted little more than 
a century and a quarter, and may be divided into 
two parts, the first coinciding with the reign of the 
Emperor K’ang Hsi from 1662 to 1722, and the 
second with the rule of his successors, Yung Ch’ing, 
who occupied the throne until 1735, and Ch’ien Lung, 
who abdicated in 1796, after sixty years of power. 
All three were princes who through intelligent and 
unremitting personal interest stimulated the porce- 
lain industry to its most productive phase and their 
names are indissolubly connected with the art. 

The wares of this period were the first to reach 
Europe in any quantity; for although occasional 
examples of earlier porcelain had beencarried through 
Persia to Venice and thence to the north, no direct 
trade with the Far East was possible until the round- 
ing of the Horn opened the seas to Portuguese, 
Dutch, and English merchants. These soon began 
to bring back with them from their trading voyages 
quantities of blue and white porcelain, and later 
colored ware, which created a great furore in Europe 
and widely influenced the subsequent development of 
Occidental decorative art. Delft pottery, Dresden 
and Sévres porcelains, and many forms of British 
ceramics were the direct outcome of attempts to 
imitate the inimitable Chinese ware, which from the 
beginning aroused fervid admiration among collec- 
tors and was sought after with a persistent devotion. 
This devotion has increased rather than diminished 


Famille Notre 


K’ANG HSI, 1662-1722 


~PORCELAINS—~—FIRST & SECOND ROOMS 9Q 


ever since, until in our own day the valuation placed 
on Chinese porcelains of fine quality seems very high 
indeed, although the statement is often made that in 
China native collectors pay for representative speci- 
mens larger sums even than European buyers. 

The earlier importers of porcelain had only vague 
ideas as to the chronology of the manufacture and 
were prone to consider pieces older than was actually 
the case, largely because the innate Chinese reverence 
for antiquity led the potters to sign most of their 
ware with a date two or three centuries earlier than 
could honestly be claimed, in the belief that Western 
nations would gauge the value of any object accord- 
ing to its age. This is the explanation of the “apocry- 
phal”’ marks on porcelain whereby one finds pieces 
stamped with the seal of an emperor who died two 
or three hundred years before that type of porcelain 
began to be issued from the kiln. Although the his- 
torical information of our china-collecting ancestors 
was fanciful, they invented for their possessions a 
useful classification according to ornament and color. 
Thus among pieces decorated in polychrome certain 
general classes were established and called by the 
French terms of famaulle verte, famille notre, famaulle 
jaune, famille rose, as green, black, yellow, or rose 
happened to predominate in their color. ‘“‘Haw- 
thorn”’ vases, which may belong to any of the first 
three groups, were named because of the subject of 
their decoration and are more fully mentioned below. 
In referring to the monochromes sang de beuf, clair de 
lune, blanc de Chine, rouge d’or, and other old French 


10 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 
phrases descriptive of color have been incorporated 
into every porcelain collector’s vocabulary and are 
heard much more often than their English equiva- 
lents. One word, however, came directly from the 
East into the English language, the term “‘china”’ 
which we now use to apply to all manner of porcelan- 
ous wares. 


The Collection 


First Room 


A number of the Altman pieces, in so far as their 
history can be traced, were brought to Europe shortly 
after their manufacture and have been known since 
the eighteenth century. Among these are several 
specimens in the most outstanding group of the col- 
lection, the forty splendid hawthorn vases, which 
rank both in number and in quality among the finest 
porcelains in existence. The fact that the main sub- 
ject of the enameled decoration of these vases is the 
prunus flower, a blossoming shrub resembling the 
English hawthorn, gives this type of ware its name, 
even though the prunus occasionally is omitted from 
the ornament and is often mingled with other flowers 
and with birds and insects. The black, yellow, or 
green backgrounds of these vases are added after the 
other decorations, and the quality of the color, as well 
as the freedom with which it is applied, helps in de- 
termining the age of the piece. Of the thirty-two 
specimens with black backgrounds the five pieces, 
Nos. 1 to 5 in CAsE H, Room 1, forming a garniture 


ODDESS KUAN YIN 


G 
ing Dynasty, 1368-1643 


M 


‘ 
$3 
. 
ee 
-— 
sey 
2 


"4; 


Peete PE AENS -~-EPRS T'ROOM II 


de cheminée or mantle-set, were evidently made early 
- in the reign of K’ang Hsi and are remarkable among 
a remarkable group for the dignity and simplicity 
of their form, for their glossy black grounds covered 
with a film of iridescent green glaze, and for the bold 
mastery with which the ornament is drawn. Scarcely 
less splendid in quality and of the same early date 
are the three vases numbered 6, 7, and 8, in CAsE R, 
Room 1, while the other superb black hawthorns in 
this room show the minor refinements which the next 
few decades brought to this type of porcelain. 
No. 9, CAsE S, is particularly noteworthy among the 
later specimens, both for finish and for design. The 
six hawthorns with yellow backgrounds are of a type 
even rarer than the black—the central vase, No. 10 in 
Case F, being without a duplicate, so far as 1s known. 
The monumental example of green hawthorn, No. 11, 
Case V, the only specimen of the color in the collec- 
tion, is unexcelled among porcelains of this variety. 
The collection includes twenty-three specimens of 
famille verte ware in which green against a white 
background is the predominant color among the 
variegated enamels of the ornament. Cases J, K, L, 
QO, and T of Room 1 contain most of the examples 
of this comprehensive species of porcelain. The 
charming decoration of Nos. 12 and 13, in CAsE J, 
and 14, in CAsE Q, indicates the appearance of a 
hawthorn vase before the colored background 1s 
added, but because of the omission here of any tinted 
ground these vases are classed as famille verte, al- 
though the prunus flower appears among the orna- 


12 THE ALTMAN COLLECT. 


ment. No. 15, on a pedestal, is interesting in that 
the subject of the decoration is the “Hundred An- 
tiques,”’ legendary treasures often depicted in Chinese 
art. No. 16, CAse L, is unusual in having under- 
glaze blue combined with overglaze enamels. The 
figures in CAsE K, on the east wall in Room 1, are 
almost all of the famille verte type, although the large 
statuette, No. 17, of Kuan Yin, the beneficent Bud- 
dhist deity, is one of the few porcelains in the Altman 
Collection antedating the reign of K’ang Hsi. This 
and the smaller figure, No. 18, are productions of the 
end of the sixteenth century, late in the Ming dy- 
nasty, and are typical of the more restricted color 
scheme and bolder conception of form out of which de- 
veloped the K’ang Hsi specimens grouped about them. 

Dating from Ch’ien Lung’s time and grouped 
chiefly in Cases C, D, and E of Room 1 are the vases 
of the famille rose, so called from the characteristic 
pale crimson or rouge d’or, the most noteworthy color 
among the enamels. This opaque tint, which is pro- 
duced by gold, was invented at about the same time 
that an almost identical color, the rose Dubarry, 
made its appearance in France. Combined with 
the new enamel are many others not found in the 
older porcelain, notably a thick opaque white which 
is often tinted in gradations of rose. 

Toward the end of the Ch’ien Lung period the 
fashion in color underwent a further modification and 
to the taste of the time for rather raw tints was added 
a fondness for the use of gold and for a complexity 
of geometrical ornament. This is partly illustrated, 


VASES 
Famille Jaune 


ANG HSI, 1062-1722 


) 


K 


i 
” € ‘ 


Penman ft ALTNS--FIRST ROOM 13 


and in its most ‘attractive phase, by the egg-shell 
plates and cups “‘with seven borders,” Nos. 26 to 29 
of CasE Cin Room 1, and in a larger way by the pair 
of great vases, Nos. 30 and 31,1n Room 1, which were 
made to stand at the entrance of the hall of audience 
in some nobleman’s house. They show the heavier 
quality of the enamels used at this time and the mode 
of combining a large number of separate tints to sug- 
gest a heavily jeweled area. The vase numbered 32 
in Case P, Room 1, is representative of the last 
phase of the eighteenth-century porcelain, when the 
designer’s taste and judgment were less sure than 
formerly, and his work presaged the complete stagna- 
tion which a great art was to suffer for the next hun- 
dred years. 

The method of ornamenting porcelain in under- 
glaze blue is illustrated by the many specimens of 
blue and white ware placed in Cases M, N, and O 
of Room 1. These vases are esteemed in proportion 
to the intensity of the blue used in their decoration; 
and the deep strong color of Nos. 19 and 20, CASE 
O, is noteworthy, as is that of the blue hawthorn jar, 
called a “ginger jar,” No. 21, CAsE M, which was 
made to be filled, not with ginger for commercial 
exportation, but with sweetmeats sent from one 
friend to another on the New Year. The name origi- 
nated in the early days of trade with the East when 
the European importers put their porcelains to uses 
which the makers had never intended. The decora- 
tion of blue and white porcelain is varied in design, 
the more closely patterned pieces being in a general 


14 THE ALTMAN COLCEERG Dia 


way the earlier. Most of those shown here date 
from the K’ang Hsi period (1662-1722), but, among 
others, Nos. 22 and 23, CAsE A, are fine examples of 
the Ch’ien Lung period (1736-1795). The small box, 
No. 24, CASE B, also of the second part of the eigh- 
teenth century, is interesting in having on its cover 
a representation of the eight trigrams of divination, 
a symbol of ancient Chinese magic. 

With the new Emperor, Yung Ch’ing (1723- 
1736), the ornament of porcelain became feminized — 
and the old strong colors were replaced by a variety 
of softer tints. An example of the productions of 
this reign is No. 25, Case U, Room 1, although as a 
whole the distinction is not sharply drawn between 
wares of this transition period and those of the follow- 
ing epoch, when the master potters of the Emperor 
Ch’ien Lung carried to highest pitch the refinement 
of structure, surface, and ornament of porcelain. 


Second Room 


Among the monochrome porcelains, in Room 2, 
the sang de boeuf or ox-blood reds, Cases C, D, E, 
and F, will at once attract the visitor by their intense 
color. Some of these are known as flambé from the 
flame-like variegations which the glaze has assumed 
in the firing. These gorgeous reds, as well as the 
apple-green of the vases in CAsEs I and J, Room 2, 
are produced from copper, through processes in- 
vented by the first of the four famous porcelain 
governors named Lang, whence the varieties are 
known as Lang yao or Lang’s ware. 7 


I2 
HAWTHORN VASE 


Famille Verte 
K’ANG HSI, 1662-1722 


7? 


 PORCELAINS—SECOND ROOM 15 


Case B, Room 2, is remarkable in that it contains 
no fewer than thirty-four examples of the delicate 
rosy glaze which in this country is called peach-blow 
or peach-bloom, but which the Chinese term apple- 
red or haricot-red. This color, produced from cop- 
per, was peculiar to the time of K’ang Hsi and is 
rarely found on other than the small and restricted 
shapes represented here. Such ware has long been 
eagerly sought after, especially in America, but 
among the collections of peach-blow owned in this 
country none is known to equal in number or exceed 
in merit the group included in the Altman bequest. 

Among the monochromes, also, a similar prefer- 
ence exists at present for delicate modified hues and 
smooth, almost smug surface. The little bottles in 
pearl gray, clair de lune, rose, and magazine blue, 
shown in CAsE G of Room 2, illustrate the new tastes 
for subtle color. 

Several of the beautiful all-white vases, which have 
always been popular since the beginning of Chinese 
ceramics, and which are usually considered as a 
single class, with regard rather to quality and color 
than to chronology, are represented in CAsE K, Room 
2. Among the others No. 33 is typical of the later 
stage of the porcelain industry, dating from Ch’ien 
Lung’s time. No. 34, with its fine incised ornament, 
is Yung Ch’ing,while the bottle, No. 35, and the bowl, 
No. 36, are much more ancient, being specimens of 
the white porcelain produced in the Sung dynasty, 
and termed Ting yao from its place of manufacture. 
The three small libation or wedding cups, Nos. 37, 


16 THE ALTMAN COLL ED at ae 


38, and 39 in Case K, Room 2, it may be noted, to- 
gether with the figure of Kuan Yin, No. 40, in the 
same case, were probably made at a factory in the 
province of Fuchien, which specialized in uncolored 
ornamental pieces and manufactured much delicate 
white ware of this type and glaze, known in France as 
blanc de Chine. All the other pieces in the collec- 
tion were presumably made at Ching-té-chén. The 
graceful bowl, No. 41, is of special interest in that it 
is one of the famous Yung Lo porcelains which bear 
incised in the fragile paste the seal of the Emperor 
of that name who ruled from 1402 to 1424. 

A few miscellaneous Chinese objects not porce- 
lain have been placed in these galleries because of 
their Oriental provenance; among them are a jar in 
opaque glass, No. 42, Case L, Room 2; a Ming 
cloisonné vase, No. 43, CAsE C, Room 1; and two 
covered jars, Nos. 44 and 45, Case C, Room 1, which 
are of copper ornamented in painted enamels. Al- 
though these last two are late specimens of a genre 
which never attained conspicuous merit, they are of 
interest in being the first objects of art which at- 
tracted Mr. Altman’s attention, and he always re- 
garded them with affection as the nucleus from which 
his entire collection grew. 


Snuff-Bottles 


HE Chinese throughout the entire development 
of their art evinced a fondness for small and 
precious talismans and toys which they treasured in 


PICA 
Famille Verte 


K’ANG HSI, 16062-1722 


Perm GELPAINS-—SECOND ROOM 17 


hidden places or often ¢arried about in the folds of 
their huge sleeves. Such are the early jade amulets 
and such, from a later age, are the one hundred and 
seventy-one small snuff-bottles in Case L of Room 2, 
which rank among the most interesting objects in 
the Altman Collection, because of the meticulous 
care which has been lavished on their ornamenta- 
tion. They were used for scents, cosmetics, and 
medicines, as well as for snuff, and may be divided 
according to material into two classes, the one of 
porcelain, the other of hard stones. The porcelain 
bottles correspond both in period and type to the 
larger porcelains in the collection, and examples of 
most of the varieties of ware made under K’ang Hsi, 
Yung Ch’ing, and Ch’ien Lung may be found re- 
peated in delicate miniature among the snuff-bottles, 
although the structure and finish in the small pieces 
are far finer than in the large specimens. 

The hard stones include such precious and semi- 
precious minerals as sapphire, amethyst, turquoise, 
jasper, carnelian, agate, sardonyx, chalcedony, lapis- 
lazuli, crystal, alabaster, and jade. The charm of 
color in these rare materials, as well as the ingenuity 
of the lapidaries who have carved from them so in- 
teresting a series of subtly varied shapes, brings to 
mind perhaps more clearly than the more monumen- 
tal objects the exquisite quality of Chinese civiliza- 
tion in its culminative years. 


Paintings of Various Schools 


Third Room 


Paintings of Various Schools 


Third Room 


N Room Turee are placed the early pictures of 
| the collection and four seventeenth-century 
paintings of the Spanish and Flemish schools. 
The notes begin with the paintings on the north wall 
at the left of the doorway and follow the arrange- 
ment of the pictures around the room toward the left. 


I 


DERIGH FOUGGER 
By Hans Maler zu Schwaz 


Little is known of this painter. He was from 
the Austrian Tyrol and was influenced by Strigel, 
Schatifelin, and Amberger. Max J. Friedlander, in 
the Repertorium fiir Kunstwissenschaft, 1895, has 
made a reconstruction of his work, listing twenty pic- 
tures by him, most of which had previously been la- 
beled as of the School of Bernhard Strigel. The 
earliest of these which is dated is of the year 1510, 
the latest 1529. Our picture is number fourteen in 


21 


22 THE ALTMAN ©CO UL 8 Geta 


Dr. Friedlander’s list. On the back of the panel is 
the following inscription: 


DOMINI 
MDXXV 
ANNO CVRENTE 
XXXV 
ETATIS 


A replica, evidently by the master but without 
inscription or date, is in the collection of Count 
Fugger-Babenhausen in Augsburg. 

Ulrich Fugger was of the famous and wealthy 
family of merchants and bankers in Augsburg. 
Originally linen weavers, they were later interested 
in mines and in trading in spices and silks in many 
of the great cities of Europe. Ulrich, the father of 
the original of our picture, and his two brothers 
George and Jacob were ennobled by Maximilian, to 
whom they had made large loans, and the family 
contributed great sums to the election of Charles V 
to the imperial throne in 1519. At this time the 
representatives of the house were Jacob and his two 
nephews—Ulrich, whose likeness we have, and 
Hieronymus, both sons of Ulrich the elder. Our 
picture was painted, as the inscription says, in the 
thirty-fifth year of the sitter’s age, which was also 
his last, as he was born in 1490 and died in 1525. 
The portrait shows the features of a shrewd, hard- 
headed man who did not allow any emotions he 
might have to interfere with his decisions. 


Pena IN GS = THERD ROOM 23 


2 


PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN 
(CALLED THE ARTIST) 
By Antonello da Messina 
ABOUT 1430-1479 


The debonair young person whom this picture 
represents was formerly identified as the artist him- 
self; such was its title as far back as 1879 when lent 
by its owner at that time, Henry Willet, to the Royal 
Academy Exhibition. The sitter is a pretty and 
careless young man of about seventeen, seemingly, © 
looking straight at the spectator. But no boy of 
that age, even in the golden age of the Renaissance 
when the precocity of artists was so astounding, was 
capable of the mastery which this work displays. 

Modern research places 1430 as the year of the 
artist’s birth and his earliest picture of which the 
date is known is the Salvator Mundi of the National 
Gallery, painted in 1465. The suavity and accom- 
plishment of the painting in our picture indicate a 
very much later time than the Salvator Mundi. 
Antonello must have been middle-aged at the time 
of its execution, judging from the known dates. 


; 3 
FEDERIGO GONZAGA 
By Francia 
1448°-1517 
Federigo Gonzaga was the son of Gian Francesco 
Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and the famous Isa+ 


24 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


bella d’Este, the patroness of the great artists of her 
day. For her Mantegna painted the Parnassus and 
the Combat between Virtue and the Vices, both now 
in the Louvre, where also are allegorical paintings by 
Costa and Perugino, likewise executed at her order 
for the decoration of the room where she was in the 
habit of receiving artists and poets. Mantegna’s 
Virgin of Victory in the same museum contains a 
portrait of Gian Francesco, the kneeling knight 
whom the Madonna blesses. This was a votive 
picture, ordered in 1495, commemorating the battle 
of Fornovo where, as general of the Venetian army, 
he won a victory over Charles VIII. 

But the Marquis afterward changed sides and in 
1509, when commanding the imperial forces and the 
Milanese, he was surprised and taken prisoner by 
the Venetians at Legnago. He was liberated in 
1510 by the influence of the Pope, who demanded, 
however, that the young prince Federigo, then ten 
years old, be sent to the papal court as a hostage. 
This, being agreed to, led to the painting of our 
picture; for Isabella, having to part with her son, 
wished to have a portrait of him to keep by her. 
On his way to Rome the boy passed through Bologna, 
where his father was at that time, and Lorenzo 
Costa was asked to execute the portrait. Costa was 
unable to undertake the commission and so it was 
given to Francia, who began work, as we find in 
Isabella’s correspondence, on July 209, 1510, and 
delivered the finished portrait before August 10. 

‘It is impossible to see a better portrait or a closer 


Pam NG St PF H PRD? R O'O'M 25 


resemblance,” Isabella wrote to her agent in Bologna. 
“T am astonished to find out that in so short a time 
the artist has been able to execute so perfect a work. 
One sees that he wishes to show all the perfection 
of which he is capable.”’ In sending the artist thirty 
ducats of gold in payment, she asks that he “retouch 
lightly the hair which is too blond.” 

Francia’s answer is as follows: “The thirty ducats 
is a munificent gift of your Highness; the trouble 
we have taken in the doing of the portrait of the 
Lord Federigo does not deserve such a handsome 
reward. We remain your grateful servant for life.” 

The Marquis wished to show the picture to the 
Pope and at the papal court it fell in some way into 
the hands of a certain Gian Pietro de Cremona, 
who tried to appropriate it, but it was eventually 
returned and Casio, Isabella’s agent, wrote, ‘‘The 
portrait has been recovered and I have brought 
Francia to the house of the most illustrious Lord 
Federigo and made him compare the two together. 
Our conclusion was that it could not be better than it 
is and that it will completely satisfy your ladyship.” 

It is not pleasant to think that Isabella gave away 
the likeness of her son, but such seems to have been 
the fact. The recipient was a gentleman of Ferrara 
named Zaninello who had done some service for 
the Marchioness, and to whom she had already 
sent her own portrait. He writes her, “My lowly 
dwelling is now exalted, I have become an object of 
envy and wonder as possessing both Venus and 
Cupid in my room.” 


26 THE ALIMAN COLLECT was 


From this time until 1872 the history of the pic- 
ture is unknown. In that year it turned up at 
Christie’s auction rooms in the collection of Prince 
Jéré6me Bonaparte. In 1902 it was lent by A. W. 
Leatham to the Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibi- 
tion as A Portrait of a Boy, by Francia, and while 
there was identified by Herbert Cook as the lost 
portrait of Federigo Gonzaga. 


4 


VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS 
By Bernard van Orley 
ABOUT I49I OR 1493-1542 


Bernard van Orley was the best known of the 
Brussels artists of the sixteenth century. It is said 
that he went to Italy, where he became a friend of 
Raphael. The productions of his maturity display 
a strong preference for Italianized compositions and 
details. 

This is a work of his youth, painted, Max J. 
Friedlander and Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert believe, 
in Brussels before 1514. It certainly shows the 
local influences, that of Massys particularly, and 
seems to us, perhaps on that account, better than 
his more ambitious compositions. It is a picture of 
the Virgin fondling the nude Child by a fountain 
on the terrace of a palace of strange architecture— 
debased Gothic combined with fantastic Renais- 
sance. Some Flemish lady of rank cuddling her 
baby whom she has just bathed, one would say, were 


Paton TIN GS THIRD ROOM 27 


it not for the two little child-angels near by, who 
sing intently out of an antiphonary laid on a bench 
in front of them. 

The setting is designed to combine all the delights 
which the artist could imagine as belonging to a 
noble country residence. The green terrace dotted 
with wild flowers, on which the figures are placed, 
is confined by masonry carefully joined with lead 
and a brick wall coped with stone, where peacocks 
strut. The fountain, which is of bronze, throws a 
jet of water into a pool at the left. There is a 
paved court to the palace and beyond is a Gothic 
wall. Trees are at the left and in the distance is a 
precipitous hill with two groups of buildings joined 
by a drawbridge. Two angelic figures appear in 
the clouds and a hunter with his dog trudges up the 
hill. 

This picture was sold at Frankfort in 1901 under 
the name of Diirer to J. Emden of Hamburg, out 
of whose collection it was bought indirectly by Mr. 
Altman. 


: 5 
A LADY OF RANK AS SAINT JUSTINA 
. OF PADUA 
By Bartolomeo Montagna 
ABOUT 1450-1523 
It was the fashion in the Renaissance for persons 
of quality to have themselves painted with the 
attributes of their patron saints. This young lady 
holds a palm leaf in the right hand and an ugly 


28 THE ALTMAN COLLECT 


short dagger pierces her left breast through the 
jeweled strip of ornament that edges her green 
bodice. The palm and dagger are the symbols of 
Saint Justina, a young Paduan lady who suffered 
martyrdom in the reign of Maximilian, her bosom 
pierced with a dagger. The name of the person who 
posed for our picture must then have been Justina 
and that is all we know of her except what the por- 
trait tells us about her good looks and her fondness 
for jewels, pearls particularly. She wears a necklace of 
pearls, and they appear in the strip of ornament that 
edges her dark green gown, in the little cap that holds 
her hair in place, and in clasps for her braid. 

The picture is from the Hainauer Collection. The 
frame is worthy of remark. 


6 


MARGARET WYATT, LADY LEE 
By Hans Holbein the Younger 
1497-1543 
This portrait dates from about 1539, when Hol- 
bein was in the heydey of his success in England, 
painting all the people of importance at the court of 
Henry VIII, whose successive queens and candidates 
for queens were posing for him. In 1538 he went 
to Brussels to paint the portrait of Christine of 
Denmark, the widow of the Duke of Milan. The 
painting (now in the National Gallery) was finished 
in three hours, said a witness, and “the portrait is 
perfect.” In 1539 the picture of Anne of Cleves, now 


ETALIS 


6 
MARGARET WYATT, LADY LEE 
By Hans Holbein the Younger 


f 
meee IN GS=- THIRD ROOM 29 


in the Louvre, decided Henry VIII to make that lady 
his wife. It was while executing commissions of this 
prominence that Holbein painted the Lady Lee. The 
fashion of her dress enables us to date the portrait 
pretty exactly. 

She was the sister of Sir Thomas Wyatt, courtier 
and writer of poems, a drawing of whom, by Hol- 
bein, is in the Royal Collection at Windsor. She 
had a sister, Mary Wyatt, who attended Queen 
Anne Boleyn on the scaffold, the Dictionary of Na- 
tional Biography tells us, but it makes no mention of 
the lady of our picture. The reasons for believing 
her to be Lady Lee are rather slight; a copy of 
our picture in the possession of Viscount Dillon at 
Ditchley, Oxfordshire, is the likeness, it seems, of 
that lady, according to family traditions. Yet these 
reasons were sufficient for the compiler of the cata- 
logue of the Exhibition of Early English Portraits at 
the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1909 to label the 
picture with her name followed by a question mark; 
and Arthur B. Chamberlain in his book on Holbein 
speaks of it as being “‘now identified with some de- 
gree of certainty as a portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt 
the elder’s sister.” 

Our portrait, painted in her thirty-fourth year, 
shows her a sharp-faced, rather calculating lady of 
uncertain temper. She wears a dress of dark brown 
damask dotted with little golden ornaments like 
tags. A black velvet bonnet or hood decorated 
with a band of gold filigree and pearls almost hides 
her reddish hair. At the breast her dress is clasped 


30 THE ALTMAN COLLULECGCiVas 


by a red enameled brooch in the shape of a rose, and 
a gold medallion with a figure of Lucrece hangs from 
a ribbon at her waist. 

The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy 
Exhibition in 1907 and at the Exhibition of Early 
English Portraits at the Burlington Fine Arts Club 
in 1909. It was in the collection of Major Charles 
Palmer at Dorney Court, Windsor, where, according 
to the family archives, it remained from the time 
of King Charles I until late years, and from which 
it was taken previous to its purchase by Mr. Alt- 
man in 1912. 


7 
MADONNA AND CHILD WITH 
SAINT ANNE 
By Albrecht Direr 
1471-1528 
Several other similar compositions by Diirer exist; 
Gustav Waagen mentions no less than ten, either 
paintings or drawings, known to him, Of these our 
example is the most famous. It has a pyramidal 
arrangement. Saint Anne, with fixed look, her 
head and chin covered with a white drapery, rests 
her left hand on the Virgin’s shoulder and holds 
the sleeping Christ Child in her lap. Mary, her 
head lower than Saint Anne’s, with half-closed eyes 
and joined hands, adores the Child. An exact study 
for the Saint Anne exists in a fine drawing in Chinese 
ink on gray paper heightened with white which is 
in the Albertina at Vienna. 


PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM 31 


The picture is signed and dated 1519. It comes 
from the Royal Gallery at Schleissheim near Munich, 
a country house of the Kings of Bavaria. With a 
number of other pictures from the same place it was 
sold at auction in 1852; Joseph Otto Entres of 
Munich, described as a sculptor and picture dealer, 
purchased it at that time for the sum of 50 florins. 
Its low price is explained by the statement that it 
was covered by a heavy coat of discolored varnish, 
which gave it a forbidding appearance. It was later 
bought by Jean de Couriss of Odessa at a price of 
46,000 francs and came to Mr. Altman from the 
collection of Madame de Couriss, who also owned 
the Filippino Lippi of this collection. 

In the middle of the last century this picture was 
the subject of a discussion between Ernest Forster 
on one side, who considered it to be undoubtedly an 
authentic work by Diirer, and Gustav Waagen and 
Otto Mundler on the other, who questioned this 
attribution. Moriz Thausing, in his monograph on 
the artist, reports the arguments (which may be 
read in full in the Deutsches Kunstblatt for 1854) 
and judges that those who pronounced against it 
did not take into due consideration the qualities of 
Diirer’s painting at the period, which, though show- 
ing no diminution in force of conception, is marked 
by a certain impatience in the rendering. They 
were inclined, he says, to exclude from the master’s 
work the pictures of lessened charm that came from 
his workshop. 

It belongs to a time when the artist was chieily 


32 THE ALTMAN COLLECAa. 


concerned with engraving or drawings for engraving. 
His three masterpieces in this art—the Knight, 
Death, and the Devil; the Melancholia; and the 
Saint Jerome in his Cell—were produced a few years 
before, and in 1519 he was engaged on the great 
Triumph of Maximilian, the last of a long series of 
drawings which he made for his imperial patron. 
Engraving was more profitable than painting. In 
a letter to Jacob Heller of Frankfort, written in 1509, 
he says, ‘‘I wish from now on to confine myself to 
my engravings; had I so decided years ago I might 
now be the richer by a thousand florins.” 


8 


LADY RICH 
By Hans Holbein the Younger 
1497-1543 

Lady Rich was Elizabeth, daughter and heiress to 
William Jenks, a prosperous grocer of London. 
Nothing is known of her history except that in 1535 
she married Richard Rich, an unscrupulous but suc- 
cessful lawyer, who in 1548 was raised to the peer- 
age and made Lord Chancellor of England, and that 
she was the mother of ten daughters and three sons 
whose names have been preserved. She was painted 
about 1536, shortly after her marriage. There is a 
beautiful study for this picture in the Windsor 
Castle Collection, where is also a drawing of her 
husband, whose portrait Holbein painted, in all 
probability, though no trace of it exists. 


a 
PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM 33 


Ralph N. Wornum speaks of this work as a fine, 
expressive portrait, one of those examples which 
give us the decided impression that Holbein troubled 
his sitters as little as possible and worked alone, 
relying largely on the preliminary drawing and the 
accuracy of his memory. She wears the English hood 
of the time and a black dress with a flaring collar 
fastened with an exquisitely rendered gold medallion, 
which is decorated with the figures of a man and a 
woman standing by a dead body. Her face is fat and 
flabby; in this the painting differs from the prelimi- 
nary drawing, where the forms as well as the char- 
acter are more decided and more strongly marked. 

In the early seventeenth century this picture was 
the property of the Right Reverend Herbert Croft, 
Bishop of Hereford. His granddaughter married into 
the Mosely family and from about 1700 it was in 
their possession. It was purchased from Captain 
H. R. Mosely of Buildwas Park, Shropshire, in 1912. 


9 
FILIPPO ARCHINTO, ARCHBISHOP 
OF MILAN 
By Titian 
1477 (1489?)-1576 
Filippo Archinto was born about 1500, or a little 
earlier, of a well-known Milanese family. After 
studying and practising as a lawyer, he entered the 
church and became prominent for his knowledge of 
canon law under Paul III, with whose policies and 


34 THE ALTMAN ‘COLLEDQGT 2 


ambitions he identified himself. He was sent by this 
pope to preside in his name at the Council of Trent, 
then transferred to Bologna, and he also served for 
a time as governor of Rome. He did much to further 
the cause of the Jesuits. From 1554 to 1556 he was’ 
sent as a legate to Venice, when Titian may have 
painted this portrait. His death in 1558 prevented 
his installation in the archiepiscopal chair of Milan 
to which Paul IV had nominated him. 

He lives in a famous anecdote which is repeated 
by Bernard Berenson in the catalogue of the John 
G. Johnson Collection. It seems that when gover- 
nor of Rome: he was called upon to decide who was 
the father of a certain child. Of the two claimants 
one was a German and one a Spaniard. Archinto 
caused food and wine to be brought and bade the 
child eat and drink. This he did but would drink 
only water, whereupon the governor told the German 
that it was no child of his, because, had he German 
blood in his veins, he would never drink water when 
wine was within reach. 

Archinto died an exile in Bergamo in 1558. An- 
other portrait of him is in America, in the John G. 
Johnson Collection at Philadelphia. In the paint- 
ing belonging to Mr. Johnson, which is precisely 
the same pose line for line, the sitter has not the 
vigorous aspect which the Altman portrait shows, 
and there is a peculiar transparent veil over half the 
picture covering almost all the face, which may refer, 
says Mr. Berenson in the Johnson catalogue, to the 
comparative neglect and obscurity in which he re- 


10 
BUGAS VANGUEPEL 


By Anthony van Dyck 


f 
PAINTINGS —THIRD ROOM 35 


garded himself as living in 1556. The Altman pic- 
ture Mr. Berenson would place two or three years 
earlier. 


IO 


LUCAS VAN UFFEL 
By Anthony van Dyck 
1509-1641 

Both this picture and the other Van Dyck of the 
Benjamin Altman Collection date from the time of 
the artist’s visit to Italy, whence he returned in his 
twenty-seventh year. Gustav Waagen saw the 
Lucas van Uffel at Stafford House, the property of 
the Duke of Sutherland, and wrote of it in his Treas- 
ures of Art in Great Britain as follows: ‘The portrait 
of an astronomer or mathematician in dark, furred 
mantle. The manner in which the figure has risen 
from the chair, as if some sudden circumstance had 
interrupted his studies, gives the portrait all the 
interest of an historical picture. The price paid for 
it, £440, is by no means too much.” The Duke of 
Sutherland paid this sum for the work in Paris in 1837. 

Lucas van Uffel was a merchant and patron of 
the arts from Antwerp who lived in Genoa. He was 
a friend of Van Dyck’s, who dedicated to him his 
etching of Titian and his mistress “in segno d’af- 
fectione et inclinatione amereuolo.”’ Another portrait 
of Van Uffel, painted somewhat later, according 
to Emil Schaeffer, is in the museum at Bruns- 
wick. He was a keen collector of pictures, owning 
at one time Raphael’s Balthazar Castiglione, now 


36 THE ALTMAN COLLEC@TiI am 


inthe Louvre. His collection was sold at Amsterdam 
in 1639. Rembrandt attended the sale and made a 
sketch of the Raphael with a marginal note that it 
fetched 3,500 gulden. This drawing is preserved in the 
Albertina at Vienna. 


II 


PHILIP: IV QF 2sF as 
By Diego Velazquez 
1599-1660 


According to the records, this picture was pur- 
chased by Dofia Antonia de Ypefiarrieta from Velaz- 
quez in 1624 and was in the possession of her de- 
scendants until 1911, when it passed into the hands 
of Mr. Altman. For about two hundred and twenty- 
five years it hung in the Palace of Corral and Narros 
at Zarauz; in the middle of the last century it was 
removed to the Villahermosa Palace in Madrid. 

There is an article by August L. Mayer in Art 
in America for October, 1913, treating of this picture 
and its companion piece, the portrait of Philip’s 
minister Olivares, both known on account of their 
provenance as the “‘Villahermosa”’ examples. The 
story of the discussion of which these pictures have 
been the subject in late years and the relation which 
our picture bears to two similar works in American 
collections, the portrait from R. Bankes’ collection 
at Kingston Lacy, now in the Isabella Stewart Gard- 
ner Museum, Boston, and the example in the Boston 
Museum, which was acquired in 1904 in Madrid, 
are told in this article. Both of these variants are 


I 


I] 


PHILIP IV OF SPAIN 


By Velazquez 


PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM 37 


pronounced by Dr. Mayer to be copies of our 
painting. , 

A. de iors agreed with this decision finally, 
though his first opinion was against the authenticity 
of both the Villahermosa pictures. He speaks of the 
Philip as “evidently not taken from nature because 
it lacks that firmness of execution which Velazquez 
always displayed when working from the living 
model.’”’ He also believed the person portrayed 
might be the Infante Don Fernando, a younger 
brother of the king, but all doubts on this head 
were set aside by the discovery in 1906 by José 
Ramon Mélida in the archives of the ducal house 
of Corral and Narros at Zarauz of the autograph 
receipt by Velazquez dated December 4, 1624, of 
which the translation reads, “I, Diego Velasquez, 
painter to his Majesty, declare that I have received 
from Sefior Juan de Cenos 800 realles* in accord- 
ance with the specifications of this document which 
I received through Lope Lucio d’Espinosa, a resi- 
dent of Burgos, which money I received on account 
of the three portraits of the King and of the Count of 
Olivares and of Sefior Garciperez, in witness where- 
of my signature given at Madrid on the 4th of De- 
cember, 1624. Diego Velasquez.” 

This precious document passed into the possession 
of Mr. Altman with the picture and now belongs to 
the Museum. It definitely disposes of the question 
of authorship and also dates our picture as before 
December 4, 1624, when the painter was in his 


*Fight hundred reales is the equivalent of about forty dollars. 


38 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


twenty-sixth year. Both points are of great interest 
to historians. 
12 
THE MARCHESA DURAZZO 
By Anthony van Dyck 
1599-1041 

Like the Lucas van Uffel, shown on this same wall, 
the Marchesa Durazzo is of Van Dyck’s so-called 
Italian period, that is to say, before 1627. It comes 
from the collection of the Marchese Gropallo at 
Genoa, and later belonged to Rodolphe Kann in 
Paris. It is described and illustrated by Wilhelm 
Bode in the catalogue of the Kann Collection, where 
it is spoken of as “‘one of the most sympathetic 
figures that Van Dyck has painted.” 

The Durazzi were a noble family of Genoa, who were 
notable patrons of the arts in Van Dyck’s time, com- 
missioning several works of Van Dyck, among others 
our picture and the celebrated Marchesa Caterina 
Durazzo with her two children (now in Genoa in the 
Palazzo Durazzo-Pallavicini), which Jacob Burck- 
hardt considered the most beautiful painting of Van 
Dyck’s Genoese visit. 

13 
CHRIST AND THE PILGRIMS 
OF EMMAUS 
By Diego Velazquez 
1599-1660 

Modern authorities agree that this picture is an 

authentic work by Velazquez dating from his early 


Peele NG ST HIRD R:O.0M 39 


time, as early indeed as his nineteenth or twentieth 
year. The picture shows the attitude of mind of a 
student interested above all in his power of repre- 
senting things as they actually appeared to him, and 
absorbed in the delight of exercising his talent in 
this direction. The figures are models acting the 
parts and the accessories are all real. There is no 
suggestion of the mystical significance of the scene. 
Its excellence lies in the vigorous modeling and the 
precise outlines and planes, in the weight and solidity 
of the things represented, and in the clarity of the 
craftsmanship. In these qualities the work is pre- 
eminent. 

It is reproduced and described by A. de Beruete 
in his work on Velazquez, where he speaks of the 
fact that the heads, hands, and draperies are modeled 
with great relief and with the care peculiar to the 
first manner of the artist. The picture has passed 
through the collections of Sefiora Cafiaveral and 
Sefiora Viuda de Garzon in Spain and of Don Manuel 
de Soto of Ziirich. 


Vg 
PORTRAIT OF A MAN 
By Guorgione 
ABOUT 1478-1510? 


“Something fabulous and illusive,” said Walter 
Pater, ‘always mingled itself in the brilliancy of 
Giorgione’s fame.” His position as a great inno- 
vator, as the discoverer of a new expression in paint- 
ing has been acknowledged by everyone from his 


40 THE‘ALTMAN CO LLE Ga 


time to ours. But there remains a Strange uncer- 
tainty as to which paintings of all those attributed 
to him are really by him. Only one is documented, 
the painting on the facade of the Fondaco dei 
Tedeschi at Venice, and of that nothing remains but 
a blur of vague colors. The critics have expended 
much energy on the subject, one claiming for him 
works of absurd differences of tendency and attain- 
ment, another reducing his representation to three 
or four pictures only, and the contest still goes on. 

It is therefore a cause of satisfaction to find that 
a lately discovered picture like this Portrait of a 
Man has won the suffrages of the most prominent 
connoisseurs. Bernard Berenson accepts it enthu- | 
slastically. ‘Critics so frequently at odds in other 
cases,” says Wilhelm Bode, “will scarcely fail to 
agree as to the genuineness of the Altman picture.” 

The portrait is that of a sensitive young man of 
melancholy aspect with long hair and a carefully 
trimmed beard. The frame (a very beautiful one, 
by the way, and of the time of the painting) cuts 
off his figure a little below the shoulders but shows 
his hands raised in the act of pulling off the right 
glove. He is of most distinguished and poetic ap- 
pearance; and as he is looking straight at the be- 
holder, it is strange that no ingenious critic has 
claimed it as a portrait of the artist himself. The 
head certainly fits the popular and legendary con- 
ception of Giorgione’s personality. This theory 
might be upheld equally well as the other that it 
represents Ariosto, of whom the only likeness that 


14 
PORTRAIT OF A MAN 


By Giorgione 


PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM 4I 


has come down to us 1s a woodcut after a drawing 
by Titian, published in the edition of Orlando Furioso 
in 1532, which shows the poet as a man of advanced 
age. 

The known history of the picture is meager. It 
belonged to Walter Savage Landor, who bought it 
in Italy, it is said, from the Grimani family, though 
the fact has not been substantiated. The Grimani 
were an important Venetian house which furnished 
three Doges to the Republic, one of whom, Antonio 
Grimani, had command of the Venetian squadron 
while Giorgione was alive. After the death of Walter 
Savage Landor in 1864, the picture was taken to 
England, where it remained until purchased by Mr. 
Altman. 


15 
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH 
SAINT JOSEPH AND A CHILD ANGEL 
By Filippino Lippi 
ABOUT 1457-1504 
The Virgin is seated holding the Child on her knee, 
Saint Joseph is at the right, and a child angel at the 
left. Two diminutive, diaphanous cherubs hold a 
veil back of the Virgin’s head. In the background are 
half-ruined arches through the openings of which is a 
landscape of strangely formed rocks and distant hills. 
The picture belongs among the later productions 
of the artist, its date being about 1500. It was for 
many years in the collection of Madame de Couriss 
at Dresden. 


42 THE ALTMAN COLLECQ fea 


16 
THE CRUCIFIXION 
By Fra Angelico 
1387-1455 
This little picture comes from the collection of the 
Marquis de Gouvello. Its only public appearance in 
recent times was at the Alsace Lorraine Exhibition — 
held at the Louvre in 1885 under the auspices of the 
French Government for the purpose of raising funds 
for the help of the exiles from the lost provinces. 
The arrangement of the picture is symmetrical. In 
the center is Christ on the Cross, at the base of which 
kneels Saint Mary Magdalen between Saint Dominic 
at the left and Saint Thomas Aquinas at the right, both 
wearing the black and white habit of the Dominican — 
order. Back of Saint Dominic stand the Virgin Mary, 
a Bishop Saint (probably Saint Augustine), and prob- 
ably Saint Monica. In corresponding positions at the 
other side are Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Fran- 
cis, and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. There isa palm 
tree on each side of the cross and a landscape back- 
ground, which consists of low hills and a wide expanse 
of twilight sky, much in the spirit of the painting of 
the last century. 
17 
PORTRAIT OF AN OLD MAN 
By Hans Memling 
ABOUT 1430-1494 
This picture is worthier of Memling’s reputation 
as portraitist than are the likenesses of Portinari and 
his wife. Like them it was shown at the Exhibition of 


17 
PORTRAIT OF AN OLD MAN 


By Hans Memling 


e 
r 
a Pak 
; i 
; 
, 
w~ 
. , « 
F , ane 


PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM 43 


Flemish Primitives in Bruges in 1902. It was there 
ascribed by its owner, Baron Albert Oppenheim, to 
Jan van Eyck. James Weale speaks of it as ‘‘ remark- 
ably fine but of a later date than Van Eyck and prob- 
ably the work of a German painter.”’ Georges Hulin 
in the catalogue of the exhibition pointed out that 
it could not be by Van Eyck and was much nearer to 
the work of Memling, and the attribution there tenta- 
tively suggested has been since generally accepted. 

According to the authorities, it is an early work, 
as early perhaps as the Triptych of Sir John Donne 
mentioned in connection with the Betrothal of Saint 
Catherine. But early as it may be, there is no uncer- 
tainty in the modeling or characterization. Without 
Van Eyck’s miraculous power of rendering what was 
before him, Memling in his portraits shows convincing 
reality and at the same time an ability in interpreting 
personality according to his own conception, which 
the greater master did not attempt. Memling’s opin- 
ion of the old gentleman who posed for him 1s clearly 
read in the likeness he painted. Humor and sharpness, 
wisdom and tolerance were the qualities he found in 
his kindly sitter, and these he has fixed in the portrait. 


18 and 20 


THOMAS PORTINARI AND MARIE 
PORTINARI, HIS WIFE 
By Hans Memling 
ABOUT 1430-1494 


These portraits were freely discussed at the time 
of the Bruges exhibition in 1902, where they were 


44 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


exhibited by Leopold Goldschmidt, their owner at 
the time. Georges Hulin, the compiler of the cata- 
logue of the exhibition, enters them as they are here 
named. The attribution has been contested by some 
critics, James Weale suggesting that perhaps they 
might be the work of Hugo van der Goes. 

Thomas Portinari, the agent of the Medici in 
Flanders, though a person of importance in the com- 
mercial and social life of his time, is remembered 
today as a patron of the fine arts and by the fact 
that the portraits of himself and of his family appear 
in the great altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes, one of 
the summits of Flemish painting, now in the Uffizi 
Gallery at Florence, but until lately in the church 
for which it was intended, Santa Maria Nuova. 
This church was founded in 1280 by Tomaso’s ances- 
tor, Folco Portinari, who was the father of Dante’s 
Beatrice. The altarpiece was painted about 1476 
and, judging from the age of the sitters, these Altman 
portraits must have been executed several years ear- 
lier, ten or twelve years at least, one would say. It 
has been pointed out that the necklace which the lady 
Wears in our picture is the same that appears in her 
portrait on the wing of the altarpiece in Florence. 
Besides these pictures, several portraits attributed to 
Memling are believed to represent Portinari and his 
wife. Two of these occur in the Passion of Christ, a 
small picture in the Turin Museum; another is the 
Man in Prayer, part of a triptych dated 1487 in 
the Uffizi, a picture which comes from the church of 
Santa Maria Nuova. 


PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM A5 


We are told that our panels were in the Volpi 
Collection, Florence, before they were acquired by 
Leopold Goldschmidt. 


I9 
Peeper OrAL OF SAINT CATHERINE 


By Hans Memling 
ABOUT 1430-1494 


The scene takes place ina garden. A canopy with 
a background of red and gold brocade has been 
erected in front of a vine-covered trellis and before 
it, a little to the right of the center of the picture, 
sits the Virgin holding the nude Christ Child on her 
lap. Saint Catherine is a Flemish princess of the 
fifteenth century. She is seated on the ground at 
the left and raises her left hand toward the Infant 
Jesus, to receive from Him the betrothal ring which 
He is about to slip upon her finger. Her emblems, 
the wheel and the sword, are before her, half hidden 
under the folds of her dress of brown and gold bro- 
cade. Beyond and behind Saint Catherine, the 
donor, a young man in black, kneels and tells his 
beads. On the opposite side in the foreground is 
Saint Barbara reading a breviary, and her tower with 
its three windows is in the background. Two angel 
musicians in priestly garments are on either side of 
the Virgin: the one at the left looks smilingly at the 
Christ Child, his hand on the keys of his organ; 
the other, in a rich dalmatic, sings softly as he 
touches the harp strings. Beyond the flower-covered 
space where the figures are, is a quiet landscape. A 


46 THE ALTMAN COLLEGTION 


plainwithtrees,a horseman passing along a road which 
leads to a towered gate in a wall, people on an arched 
bridge over a little river,a round building, andalowhill 
are the items which make up the picture, of which the 
loveliness and tranquil piety escape the power of words. 

No theme fitted the qualities of Memling’s genius 
so perfectly as the Mystic Marriage of Saint Cath- 
erine. Three versions of the subject by him are 
known. The earliest of these, the triptych of Sir 
John Donne, so called from the English nobleman 
who commissioned the work, is in the collection of 
the Duke of Devonshire in Chatsworth House. The 
arrangement of the central panel of this triptych is 
similar to the Altman picture, except that the figures 
of Sir John Donne, his wife, and daughter kneel in 
the foreground and that the Setting is an open hall 
with columns instead of the garden. It is probable 
that this painting was executed about 1468 when Sir 
John visited Flanders in the train of Margaret of 
York at the time of the marriage of that princess to 
Charles the Bold of Burgundy. 

After this in date comes the astounding Mystic 
Marriage of the Hospital of Saint John at Bruges, 
begun in 1475 and finished in four years. As every 
one knows, it is also a triptych, and the central panel 
Is a modification of the triptych of Sir John Donne. 
Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evange- 
list have been added and the simple columns of the 
early version, like those of a cloister, are here ar- 
ranged like the columns of the ambulatory of the 
apse in a cathedral—a forest of columns. 


| 19 
ie bewROLHAL OF SAINT CATHERINE 


By Hans Memling 


Pewe EN GS -—— THURD ROOM 47 


Our picture must have followed soon after the 
finishing of the Bruges triptych. Saint Catherine 
and Saint Barbara are almost identical in type and 
pose, and the costumes similar. But the regal beauty 
of the Bruges masterpiece has been transformed in 
the Altman panel to something gracious and intimate. 
There the Mary is the Queen of Heaven who holds 
a God in her arms, while here she is a tender mother 
looking down at her baby and He for His part is a 
little roguish and amused at the pretty scene in 
which He plays the principal part. Then the aus- 
tere figures of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John 
the Evangelist are lacking in our variant and the 
maze of pillars and the pavement covered with an 
Eastern carpet have given place to the smiling coun- 
tryside and the wild flowers growing in the grass. 
These changes account in part for the differing ex- 
pressions. 

It is not known who the young man for whom it 
was painted is, the one who kneels in our picture. 
The earliest record of the painting 1s when it belonged 
to Sir Joshua Reynolds. Before Mr. Altman bought 
the work it was in the collection of Leopold Gold- 
schmidt in Paris. 


21 


PORTRAIT OF A MAN 
By Dirk Bouts 
ABOUT 1410-1475 
The sitter is a thin-faced man of early middle age 
with strong and earnest features. He is posed in the 


48 THE ALTMAN COLLE Guam 


manner so frequent in Flanders in the fifteenth cen- 
tury, his fingers joined as if in prayer. Only the 
upper part of the hands is visible, the frame cutting 
off the rest. As is apt to be the case in these por- 
traits, the composition appears somewhat crowded, 
as if the panel were small for all that the thrifty 
painter made it contain. The person reminds one of 
a certain figure in the Legend of Otho series, Bouts’s 
last commission, executed for the town hall of 
Louvain and now in the Brussels Museum; only two 
panels were completed at the time of the artist’s 
death. This resemblance would indicate, as Max 7; 
Friedlander has pointed out, that our picture dates 
from the later part of the painter’s life. Bouts was 
appointed in 1464 “‘portraitist” of Louvain, his re- 
tainer, as the records show, being a piece of cloth out 
of which to make a dress of ceremony and ninety 
“plecken”’ to buy a lining for it. As painter to the 
city he was required to accompany the annual pro- 
cession of the Holy Sacrament and the Kermesse, 
receiving with the other functionaries at the end of 
the procession a pot of Rhine wine. 

Dirk or Tierry Bouts, as he is sometimes called, is 
counted among the founders of Flemish painting and 
one of the greatest of fifteenth-century artists. He 
may have been born in Holland; certainly he studied 
there, though the paintings of Jan van Eyck were 
the real foundations of his art. But in distinction 
to his Flemish contemporaries, one fancies that there 
is something of Dutch seriousness and reserve in his 
people, and that the human sympathy revealed in 


21 
PORTRAIT OF A MAN 


By Dirk Bouts 


PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM 49 


his pictures prefigures in that sense the work of 
Rembrandt. 


22 


THE HOLY FAMILY 
By Andrea Mantegna 
1431-1506 


This picture entered into the arena of modern dis- 
cussion in 1904 with an article by Wilhelm Bode in 
the Kunstchronik, reviewing Paul Kristeller’s book 
on Mantegna. In this article was given a reproduc- 
tion of our picture, which Dr. Bode there pronounced 
to be a genuine work of the later time of the master. 
In 1902 the painting was sold out of the collection 
of Count Agosto d’Aluti in Naples and was acquired 
by Consul Eduard Weber of Hamburg. The Weber 
Collection was sold in 1912 and soon afterward the 
Mantegna passed into the possession of Mr. Altman. 

It is painted in tempera on canvas. The four 
figures fill the panel in the manner of a bas-relief; 
the background of lemon branches on a single plane 
immediately back of the heads strengthens the 
similarity. The Virgin, seated, holds the nude Christ 
Child, who stands with one foot on a cushion on her 
lap. Saint Joseph at the left and Saint Mary Mag- 
dalen at the right look out of the picture at the spec- 
tator. Of almost identical arrangement is a much- 
restored picture in the Dresden Gallery, the so-called 
Eastlake Mantegna, where Saint Elizabeth is intro- 
duced in the place which the Magdalen occupies in 
the Altman picture and the infant Saint John is 


50 THE ALTMAN COLYLER @Gihww. 


added. Our painting also has marked analogy with 
a work of doubtful authenticity in the Verona Mu- 
seum, representing the Virgin and Child, Saint Jo- 
seph, and Mary Magdalen. The accepted date for 
these compositions is placed at about 1495, toward 
which time the Altman picture can safely be assigned. 

Seymour de Ricci points out that our work corre- 
sponds with the description of a painting, which has 
since disappeared, mentioned in Ricche Miniere della 
pittura Veneziana by Boschini, published at Venice 
in 1674. A picture by Mantegna, The Madonna 
and Child, Saint Joseph, and Saint Mary Magdalen, 
is there spoken of as being in the Hospital for In- 
curables in Venice. ‘‘As no genuine Mantegna but 
the Weber (Altman) picture shows the same sub- 
ject,” says Mr. de Ricci in disposing of the question, 
“we may confidently identify the two paintings and 
can thus establish the original provenance of this 
Holy Family.” 


23 
BORSO D’ESTE (?) 
By Cosimo Tura 
ABOUT 1432-1495 


On the authority of Bernard Berenson this admi- 
rable little portrait is thus ascribed in the Altman 
catalogue. It has borne many names. When lent 
to the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 
1857 by William Drury Lowe, it was called Por- 
trait of a Youth in Profile by Piero della Francesca 
and at the Leeds Exhibition in 1868 it appeared 


22 
Tree HOLY FAMILY 


By Andrea Mantegna 


reowret I NGS THIRD ROOM 51 


under the same title. This was changed at the Royal 
Academy Exhibitions of 1884 and 1893 to the Por- 
trait of Sigismundo Malatesta by Piero della Fran- 
cesca. The collection of Mr. Lowe was catalogued 
in 1903 by Jean Paul Richter, who judged our pic- 
ture to be of the school of Ferrara, attributing it to 
Francesco Cossa, an attribution which was generally 
accepted up to the time of Mr. Berenson’s pronounce- 
ment. Dr. Richter saw in the sitter not Malatesta, 
the terrible condottiere of Rimini, but rather a mem- 
ber of the family of the magnificence-loving Borso 
d’Este, perhaps his younger brother, later Duke 
Ercole. 

The publication of the firm of art dealers from 
whom Mr. Altman acquired the work gives the name 
of the artist as it now appears but returns to Mala- 
testa as the person represented. The publication 
states that “this head is clearly a perfect portrait”’ 
of him and reproduces a medal by Matteo de Pastis 
in proof. The resemblance is not convincing, how- 
ever, either with this medal, which shows a man of 
middle age, or with a far more famous example 
which was not cited, the portrait of Sigismundo in 
prayer before his patron saint by Piero della Fran- 
cesca at Rimini. 

On the other hand, it is difficult to reconcile the 
dates of Borso d’Este as sitter (1413-1471) with those 
of Tura as artist (1432?-1495) in relation to the 
portrait of a youth who appears to be scarcely twenty. 
Several undoubted portraits of Borso exist and it is 
evident that there is a strong resemblance in the 


52 THE ALTMAN COLLECl 


features, the nose, mouth, and chin particularly, 
between these portraits and the young man of the 
Altman picture. One would call it a family likeness 
in any event, agreeing thus far with Dr. Richter. In 
l’Arte Ferrarese nel Periode d’Ercole I d’Este, Adolfo 
Venturi shows that in his capacity as court painter 
under Borso and Ercole one of Tura’s important 
functions was the painting of portraits of the reign- 
ing family which, according to the custom of the 
time, were presented or exchanged on state occa- 
sions, such as marriages or betrothals. Though none 
of the many existing records of these portraits could 
apply to our picture, the theory that it might have 
been painted for such a purpose is not improbable. 


24 
VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS 
By Sebastiano Mainardt 
ABOUT 1450-1513? 

The Virgin, with her head bowed and her hands 
joined in an attitude of prayer, is seated in the center 
of the picture with the Christ Child poised half lying 
on her right knee. He is supported by a child angel 
and raises His hands toward His mother. The com- 
position is balanced by another angel whose arms 
are folded over the breast. Behind the Madonna 1s a 
strip of brocade and on each side are glimpses of 
landscape. 

The work was formerly in the collection of Baron 
Lazzaroni in Paris. 


23 
BORSO D’ESTE (?) 


By Cosimo Tura 


Beater G ot- THIRD ROOM 53 


25 
THE LAST COMMUNION OF SAINT JEROME 
By Botticelli 
1447°-1510 

“Botticelli,” says the Anonimo Gaddiano, “made 
very many little paintings which were most beautiful 
and among the rest a Saint Jerome, a singular work.” 
Our Saint Jerome may well be the singular work re- 
ferred to. It comes from the collection of the Mar- 
chesi Farinola at the Palazzo Capponi in Florence, 
being inherited from Gino Capponi, the statesman 
and historian, in whose time it was attributed to 
Andrea del Castagno. It has excellent credentials. 
Giovanni Morelli pointed out that it was an original 
by Botticelli and all the modern authorities on the 
school since his time have commented upon it. The 
fullest account is found in Herbert Horne’s Botticelli 
(page 174 and following) and this account has been 
freely drawn upon in the preparation of this notice 
of the picture. 

At least two old copies are known to exist, one in 
the Palazzo Balbi at Genoa and the other formerly 
in the Abdy Collection, sold in 1911. The subject 
is derived from a legendary history of Saint Jerome 
translated from the Latin into Italian, the Letters of 
the Blessed Eusebius, printed in Florence in 1490, 
about the time of the painting of this picture. These 
relate how Saint Jerome, sensible of the approach of 
death, took leave of those about him with admonish- 
ments and directions. When he had finished, one of 


54 THE ALTMAN COLT BiGgaee 


the monks brought him the Holy Sacrament. After 
he had confessed, he received the Eucharist and threw 
himself upon the ground singing the canticle of Sim- 
eon the prophet, Nunc dimittis servum tuum. After 
this there came a divine light in the room and some 
saw angels passing away on every side; others did 
not see the angels but heard a voice which called to 
Jerome promising him the reward of his labors. And 
there were some’ who neither saw the angels nor 
heard the voice from Heaven but heard only the 
voice of the dying man who said, “ Behold I come to 
Thee, merciful Jesus! Receive me whom Thou hast 
redeemed with Thy precious blood.” Then his spirit 
left his body. 

Botticelli has pictured the story with the simplest 
means, leaving out the supernatural elements but los- 
ing none of its religious fervor. There are but six 
figures. Saint Jerome, aided by two monks, has left 
his bed and kneels to receive the sacrament, which a 
priest in a rose-colored chasuble and blue stole ad- 
ministers to him. Two acolytes carrying lighted 
candles attend. The action takes place in Saint 
Jerome’s cell, built of wattled reeds and shown, as 
on the stage, with one wall removed. The figures 
are at the foot of the bed. At its head are a crucifix, 
palm branches, and a cardinal’s hat. The clear sky, 
blue toward the zenith and fading into a luminous 
gray below, shows above the angles of the gable and 
through two windows, one at each side of the narrow 
room. ) 

Mr. Horne finds fault with the exaggeration of the 


25 
THE LAST COMMUNION OF 
SAINT JEROME 


By Botticelli 


PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM 55 


size of the head of Saint Jerome but adds “‘this is 
perhaps the one defect in a picture which otherwise 
must be placed among the finest of Botticelli’s smaller 
works.” 


26 


MADONNA AND CHILD 
By Andrea del Verrocchio 
1435-1488 

The London Times in its account of the sale in 1911 
of the Butler Collection, of which this picture formed 
a part, said, “The great surprise of the sale was the 
price paid for the Madonna and Child catalogued as 
by Andrea del Verrocchio, a work of great beauty of 
the finest period of Florentine art; so much uncer- 
tainty is attached to the work of Verrocchio that a 
picture like this will always be much discussed, and 
this work is very close to the famous altarpiece in the 
Accademia in Florence; the picture is on panel and 
at Sir Walter R. Farquhar’s sale in 1894 (when it was 
catalogued as by Pesellino) it realized 430 guineas; 
yesterday it started at 100 guineas and at 6,000 
guineas fell to Mr. Harvey who was acting for Col- 
naghi and Co.” It is interesting as an example of 
the rise in value of certain pictures in these times to 
know that Sir Walter Farquhar paid the sum of 64 
pounds, 12 shillings for this Madonna and Child at 
the Bromley Davenport sale in 1863. In less than fifty 
years its value had increased almost a hundredfold. 

The famous work in the Accademia that the Times 
refers to is the Baptism of Christ, in which one of the 


56 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


angels has a certain likeness to the Madonna in the 
Altman picture. There is a drawing in the Uffizi 
generally accepted to be the study for the head of 
this angel. This has downcast eyes like our own 
Madonna and is in exactly the same position, though 
the forms in the drawing are more vigorous and sculp- 
turesque. The Accademia picture is an early work 
of the master’s, begun, it has been surmised, about 


1465. 
27 (IN CASE A) 


CHRIST TAKING LEAVE OF HIS MOTHER 
By Gerard David 
ABOUT 1460-1523 


The earliest mention of Gerard David that has 
come down to us is found in Guicciardini’s Descrip- 
tion of the Low Countries, 1528, in which his name 
occurs in the list of prominent painters ‘‘also Gerard, 
known to be among the best illuminators.” The 
fact that besides being an excellent painter David 
was equally prominent as the chief of the great 
school of miniaturists of Bruges in the early sixteenth 
century should not be overlooked. Indeed, his first 
recorded commission, in 1488, was in the nature of 
miniature painting; namely, the decorating of the 
iron ‘window bars of the prison where the citizens of 
Bruges shut up the Emperor Maximilian, who had 
displeased them. 

On account of the miniature-like quality of this 
little painting, it forms a valuable addition to the 
artist’s representation in the Museum. Several paint- 


PAINTINGS—THIRD ROOM 57 


ings by him or by members of the same school are 
shown in Gallery 40, but the only one which is 
similar in treatment to this picture is the triptych by 
his pupil Adrian Isenbrant from the Lippman Collec- 
tion. The figures are shown about half length against 
a gold background; Christ stands at the right, the 
Virgin and the two other Marys at the left. The — 
picture is described and illustrated in the supplement 
to the Zeitschrift fiir Bildende Kunst, May, 1911, in 
which Wilhelm Valentiner deals with the pictures by 
David which have passed into American collections 
since the publication of Bodenhausen’s book on 
David in 1905. Here it is referred to as having been 
executed during the later part of the artist’s full 
maturity. 


~ 
. 
« 
* 
™ 
\ ¢ 
\ 
he 
; a 
ii 
Hi *) 


Dutch Paintings 
Fifth Room 


Dutch Paintings 
Fifth Room 


N Room 5 the seventeenth-century Dutch pic- 

tures are exhibited. Each painting is treated in 

the order of placing, commencing with the work 
nearest the door from Room 4, and proceeding to 
the left. 


28 


PeYOUPH WITH A LUTE 
By Frans Hals 
1584°—-1666 


With the exception of Rembrandt, who was his 
junior by a generation, Hals is the greatest name in 
Dutch painting. His peculiar excellence is in the spon- 
taneity and vivacity of his pictures. He was a prac- 
tician of extraordinary skill as well, particularly in 
the manipulation of obvious brush strokes. It is a 
technique which has been and is fashionable among 
many modern painters, and this fact may account 
in part for the high appreciation in which the artist 
has been held of late years, after almost two cen- 
turies of comparative neglect. Of his portraits the 
Altman Collection contains no example, this work 

61 


62 THE ALTMAN COLLECT Pom 


approaching portraiture more nearly than the two 
other pictures by him hanging on the same wall of 
the gallery. Like the Hille Babbe and The Smoker 
belonging to the Museum (exhibited in Galleries 11 
and 27), the Youth with a Lute partakes of the 
nature of a subject- or character-picture as well as 
of portraiture. The young man probably posed for 
the work but the painter’s interest was not in the 
likeness, though doubtless the resemblance is ex- 
cellent, but rather in the expression of a mood of 
joyousness and abandon. 

The young man is seated in front of a curtain, a 
lute resting against his left arm. He is laughing 
and holds an emptied glass in his right hand, pour- 
ing the last drops of the wine on his left thumb, 
indicating thereby, no doubt, that the glass is empty 
and that he wants it refilled. E. W. Moes, in his 
book on Hals, lists this picture under the title The 
Ruby on the Finger Nail. 

The picture comes from Ireland and was shown 
in the Dublin Exhibition of 1857. It comes from 
the collection of J. Napper of Lough Crew Castle, 
County Meath, and was sold by the Bishop of 
Meath in 1906. 


29 
YONKER RAMP AND HIS SWEETHEART 
By Frans Hals 
1584°—1666 7 
This picture is of similar type to the Merry Com- 
pany (No. 50). Yonker Ramp, or Lord Ramp, as 


29 
YONKER RAMP AND HIS SWEETHEART 


By Frans Hals 


rf 


DUTCH PAINTINGS—FIFTH ROOM 63 


it could be translated, must have been a famous 
roisterer of Haarlem in his time, and Hals has left 
several likenesses of him in various stages of tipsiness. 
In all probability he was as familiar a figure to the 
townspeople as was Hille Babbe, the old fishwife 
whose jolly and dissipated personality is preserved in 
several famous canvases, one of which, the property 
of the Museum, and attributed to Frans Hals the 
Younger, is shown in the Marquand Gallery (11). E. 
_ W. Moes calls the rubicund gentleman of The Merry 
Company, Yonker Ramp, but he and the young 
man of this picture could not be the same. Even 
were the Merry Company as late as the Yonker 
Ramp and His Sweetheart, which latter is signed and 
dated 1623, instead of being several years earlier, 
as is the case, the difference in ages between the two 
precludes the possibility, as the red-faced man 1s well 
past middle age, and in this work Yonker Ramp is in 

his first manhood. The picture shows him shouting 
- out a drinking song as he holds up a glass of wine 
while a hilarious young woman with her arm around 
his neck cuddles as near him as his great feathered 
felt hat will allow. 

The speed of the painting is bewildering, but the 
brush strokes are dashed on the canvas with perfect 
sureness in spite of it. Asin The Merry Company, 
certain parts bear witness to a calmer and more 
considered handling, such, for instance, as the hand 
holding the glass (the awkward placing of which 
shows the lack of deliberation in the conception of 
the composition), the dog the young man fondles, 


64 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


and the fireplace and raftered ceiling beyond the 
wall. But the figures, the heads particularly, might 
have been finished before Ramp finished his song. 

In the catalogue of Mme Copes van Hasselt, 
Haarlem, 1880, this work appears under the moral 
title of Vive la Fidélité, but more in the spirit of 
the work is the name given to it in 1786 when sold 
with the collection of J. Enschedé, Haarlem, Jonker 
Ramp en zyne Liebste, Lord Ramp and his Mistress. 
At the Enschedé sale it fetched 21 florins 10 sols. 
The picture was lately in the Pourtalés Collection in 
Paris. A replica in the J. P. Haseltine Collection, 
London, has a curtain instead of the wall behind the 
figures. 


30 
HENDRICKJE STOFFELS 


By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


Hofstede de Groot wrote of this picture in |’Art 
flamand in 1909 and there pronounced it to be a 
work of Rembrandt of about 1656 and to represent 
Hendrickje Stoffels. Hendrickje was a peasant girl 
from North Holland who came to Rembrandt’s 
house at first as a servant. She soon rose to a posi- 
tion of intimacy with her master and remained with 
him a long time. She was the model for many pic- 
tures, in some of which she is shown as a person of 
pleasant appearance, the most prominent example 
being the famous picture in the Louvre, painted 
about 1652. There is also an attractive likeness of 


ot Corea len hI N GS ——-FLFTH ROOM 65 


her at Berlin, the date of which is about 1656. The 
woman in our picture has no great claim to good 
looks, and a shadow on the upper lip does not add 
to her charms. 

Dr. Valentiner, agreeing with De Groot, writes of 
the work as follows: “Although, it may be added, 
this portrait of Hendrickje reveals the comfortable 
kindliness and gentleness of her nature, it lacks the 
charm of some others—for example, of the one in 
- the Museum at Berlin. Hendrickje, it should be 
remembered, was merely a girl of the people, and 
into so simple a model Rembrandt could not always 
read his own ideas, especially when, as seems here 
to have been the case, his main concern was for a 
special problem of light and shade.” 

This picture comes from the collection of J. Os- 
maston in England. 


31 
TOILET OF BATHSHEBA AFTER THE BATH 
By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


Bathsheba is seated on a stone bench covered 
with carpets near a bathing pool in a garden. Squat- 
ting before her, an old woman with spectacles trims 
her toe-nails, and a servant standing behind her 
combs her hair. The light is concentrated on the 
nude figure of Bathsheba, and there are all sorts of 
glittering things near by, a ewer, jewelry, and rich 
stuffs. In the background is foliage opening at the 
left where in the distance appears the royal palace, 


66 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


with the dim figure of King David on its roof. Two 
peacocks are in the shadow by the steps which lead 
to the pool, and on the stonework is the signature 
Rembrandt Ft. and the date 1643. 

This is a famous picture and its history may 
be pretty closely followed from the early eighteenth 
century. Here is a list of the collections of which 
it is known to have formed a part, and the prices it 
has fetched in changing hands at public sales: 


COLLECTION SOLD IN PRICE 
William Six . . . . . Amsterdam, 1734 265 florins 
Heer Hendrick . . . . Amsterdam, 1740 350 florins 
Van Zwieten . . . . The Hague, 1743 
Comte de Brihl . . . Dresden, 1763 
Poullain 2 0 . 6 4 4 eee 2,400 francs 
Le Bran, Soe, ye Pape 1,200 francs 
Alexis dela Hante . . . London, 1814 105 pounds 
Sir Thomas Lawrence . . London, 1830 150 guineas 
G.J. Vernon, . : . . London, 163% 153 guineas 
T. Emmerson. London, 1832 240 guineas 
Héris (Colonel de Biré, of 

Brussels) . Paris, 1841 7,880 francs 
Steengracht (The Hague) Paris, 1913 1,000,000 francs 


It is a record of a long wandering, from about 
ninety years after Rembrandt painted it, up to its 
journey’s end here in the Museum. It has passed 
from Holland to Germany, then to Paris, where two 
years before the Terror it sold for 1,200 francs— 
$240.00! It was taken to England with many other 
works during the Revolution, stayed there for more 
than sixty years before it returned to Paris, and 
thence returned to its old home in Holland. Then 
Mr. Altman bought it. It was his last purchase, 
arriving in New York a few months before his death. 

Numerous engravings of the work exist; it is 


\ 


31 
OMe! OF BATHSHEBA AFTER THE BATH 
By Rembrandt 


DUTCH PAINTINGS—FIFTH ROOM 67 


mentioned in all the lists and where comments occur 
it is always praised. The same subject, painted 
ten or eleven years later, is in the Louvre (Collec- 
tion Lacaze). As Marcel Nicolle has pointed out, 
the attitude of Bathsheba is similar in both pic- 
tures, and in each the old pedicure kneels before 
her. But the picture in the Louvre could in no 
sense be called a replica of this work, as the arrange- 
ment is dissimilar, and also the expression. 

Subject pictures by Rembrandt are rare in Amer- 
ica. In the John G. Johnson Collection is a work of 
this class, The Finding of Moses, a painting of a few 
years earlier than ours, which has many analogies 
with it. There is also another, the Baucis and Phile- 
mon, in the Otto H. Kahn Collection. For some 
reason or other the portraits have been more popular 
with American collectors, though to many Rem- 
brandt’s genius is shown in its loftiest manifestation 
in the biblical or mythological subjects to which he 
has given such an intense reality and at the same 
time such a sense of supernatural mystery. 


32 
WHEATFIELDS 


By Jacob van Ruisdael 
1628 (or 1629)—1682 


“Of all Dutch painters Ruisdael is the one who 
resembles his own country most nobly. He has its 
amplitude, its sadness, its almost gloomy placidity, 
its monotonous and tranquil charm.” In these 


68 THE ALTMAN COLLEG@waa 


words Eugéne Fromentin, whose contribution to 
the literature on Dutch art is by far the most valu- 
able, begins the chapter of the Old Masters which 
is concerned with this artist, whom he ranks next 
to Rembrandt. Ruisdael was a painter of land- 
scapes only. If a figure was necessary in the pic- 
tures, some friend, Adrian van de Velde or another, 
was called upon for help. In his prime he painted 
scenes of his native country; in his later years, suf- 
fering from the early blight which affected Dutch 
art, he attempted more sensational subjects, un- 
suited to his nature—torrents, mountain gorges, and 
the like—views for which he utilized the pictures 
and sketches of other painters. 

His colors are generally brown and green with 
grayish skies. The Wheatfields is not of the usual 
sort, as the picture is lighted by a streak of sun- 
light and the colors are appropriate to that effect. 
He sometimes painted the sea and winter scenes 
like the little picture in the John G. Johnson Collec- 
tion, but his favorite themes are an undulating coun- 
try with a winding road, groups of trees, forest scenes, 
and always wide stretches of sky. No other painter 
has rendered the sky with such sympathy and under- 
standing. 

Little is known of his life except that, like the 
other great Dutch masters, he died in poverty and 
neglect. His pictures tell us of the sterling qualities 
the man possessed: seriousness, probity, thoughtful- 
ness, an austere poetry, virtues often coupled with 
love of the open country. 


eee te reAA Nel IN GS -— FIFTH ROOM 69 


The Wheatfields was one of four pictures which 
Mr. Altman acquired out of the Maurice Kann 
Collection in Paris in 1909 and it was shown at the 
Hudson-Fulton Exhibition in the same year. It 
was formerly in the possession of the Comte de 
Colbert La Place. 


33 


PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST 
By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


This portrait is a dated picture of 1660 when, 
though he appears older, he was but fifty-four. 
More than fifty of these self-portraits by Rembrandt 
have come down to us and in this series the evolution 
of his genius and the development of his personality 
may be clearly traced. At first they are experiments 
in light and shade or in the study of assumed ex- 
pressions, or are incited by his love for fantastic 
costumes. As time goes on, they become more and 
more profound in psychological expression, several 
_ of these late works being masterpieces of portraiture. 
“Mirror pictures, as we know,” says Dr. Valentiner, 
“usually hide under a forced expression that verita- 
ble self which drops the veil only when it is unob- 
served.” Perhaps there is a wilful assumption of 
expression in some of these portraits, but it is so sus- 
tained throughout and so convincing a record of the 
thought of the moment that it ceases to be affecta- 
tion. Those who happen to be familiar with the self- 
portrait of a year or so earlier, belonging to the Henry 


7O THE ALTMAN COLLECM@ Ge 


C. Frick Collection, will find a comparison of the 
moods of that pictureand our work an interesting one. 
In the Frick portrait, though it also was painted in a 
troubled time, he paints himself as though he were 
a philosopher or prophet to whom all things but his 
own thoughts are indifferent. In the Altman picture 
he is prematurely aged by his troubles and is pestered 
with worries, ‘“‘the little cares and anxieties of daily 
life.’ His forehead is wrinkled and the mouth is 
drawn, but the cap is tilted a little jauntily on one 
side and the head is erect and proud. 

The painting was owned in France in the eigh- 
teenth century, being in the collection of the Duc 
de Valentinois. It appears in England in 1826, 
when it was noted by Smith in his Catalogue Rai- 
sonné as belonging to Lord Radstock. Its owner 
before its purchase by Mr. Altman was Lord Ash- 
burton. 

34 
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN 
ERRONEOUSLY KNOWN AS 
THOMAS JACOBZ HARING, THE 
AUCTIONEER 


By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


This, it is said, is a portrait of the artist’s son 
Titus. In this case he would be in his seventeenth 
year, as the work is dated 1658. It should be com- 
pared with the likeness hung beside it (Number 
35) painted three years earlier. ‘The portraits [of 


a eee AON TN GS: F FFE H,;RO' OM -71 


Titus] of 1657 and 1658 show no longer a fresh 
plump countenance, but haggard, suffering features, 
dull eyes, and sunken cheeks.”’ It must be avowed 
that the three years have made a great difference 
in the boy’s appearance, but perhaps the artist, in 
these pictures done for his own pleasure, lacked in- 
terest in the exactness of the portrait. He may 
have used the features of his sitters and the effect 
of light and shade merely as the vehicle for the ex- 
pression of the mood by which he was dominated 
at the time, and been careless of other things. 

This is one of the pictures which Mr. Altman ac- 
quired out of the Maurice Kann Collection. It was 
shown at the Hudson-Fulton Exhibition in 1909. 


35 
et Ak] IS! S SON TITUS 
By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


The picture is dated 1655, at which time the boy 
was fourteen. He has a winning, rather delicate face 
with a ‘‘vague, dreamy expression.”’ He has been 
dressed up for the portrait, as Rembrandt was so fond 
of doing. He has earrings, a wide-brimmed hat witha 
feather, and abrownish-red doublet over a plaited shirt. 

Titus was the fourth child of Saskia, Rembrandt’s 
wife, who, it is surmised, died at his birth, and the 
only one of her children who survived her. His short 
life is traceable in the work of his father, who used 
him as a model continually for portraits, as well as 


72 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


for subject pictures and many drawings and etch- 
ings. He often figures as the young Christ, as 
Joseph, as Tobias, as Daniel, and appears in many 
other biblical pictures. 

This admirable work also comes from the Rodolphe 
Kann Collection. It formerly belonged to E. Secretan, 
in Paris, and before that to the Comte Podstatzky, 
in Bohemia. 

= 
ENTRANCE TO A VILLAGE 
By Meindert Hobbema 
1638-1709 

Hobbema was a pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael. 
When he was thirty years old he married a servant 
in the house of the Burgomaster of Amsterdam, and 
by his influence was made an official of the excise. 
After this he painted only occasionally, and later 
seems to have given up his art entirely. Most of 
the great number of his works were executed before 
his appointment, though his masterpiece, The Avenue 
of Middelharnis, in the National Gallery, is late, 
being dated in a way which is generally read 1689. 

In distinction from his master there is little mood 
or poetic feeling in his pictures. His work is easy to 
identify on account of its general similarity of con- 
ception and technique. 

The Entrance to a Village is an example of his 
usual plan. There are buildings, trees, and an open 
space with houses and a church spire beyond. The 
panel is signed below to the right, M. Hobbema. 


Mee tei AST NT IN GS FIETH ROOM °73 


The picture is described in Smith’s Catalogue 
Raisonné under the title of A View of a Wooded 
Country, where it is said to have been imported by 
Thomas Emmerson and sold to the proprietor at the 
time (1835), John Lucy of Charlecote Park, London. 
More recently it belonged to Baron Lionel de Roths- 
child in London, and then to Rodolphe Kann. 


af 


PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN 
By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


This is the earliest of the Rembrandts of the Alt- 
man Collection, being dated 1633, when the artist 
was twenty-seven years old. He had moved from 
Leyden to Amsterdam two years before and was 
well launched on his career of success, having fin- 
ished the Anatomy Lesson the previous year. The 
Young Woman is an excellent and characteristic 
example of his work of the time, marked by faithful 
likeness, discreet characterization, detailed and ac- 
curate drawing, and an impeccable surface. ‘The 
best portrait painters of the time,” says Dr. Valen- 
tiner, “masters like Thomas de Keyser, Mierevelt, 
Ravestyn, and Moreelse, might have felt proud had 
they been able so to infuse with life such a charac- 
teristic head. As a composition it differs in no way 
from their works, but in the interpretation of the 
personality Rembrandt seems to unite the best 
qualities of them all—the accuracy of Mierevelt’s 


74 THE ALTMAN COLLECQi@Gs 


drawing, the tenderness of Moreelse’s modeling, the 
strong seriousness of Ravestyn, the freshness and 
naturalness of De Keyser, while with the modesty of 
genius the young painter hides himself behind his 
work.” 

The picture was in the collections of the Princess 
Radziwill at the Castle of Nieswiz in Lithuania, and 
of von Lachnicki in Paris and Warsaw. 


38 
OLD WOMAN IN AN ARMCHAIR 


By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


The subject of this early picture, dated 1635, was 
not promising for a portrait, a plain old lady who 
would sit upright in her chair in the attitude of a 
peasant who poses for the village photographer, and 
who insisted on having herself shown with a pleasant 
expression. Rembrandt has made a great picture 
of her, nevertheless, by the sheer force of his tech- 
nical power, the masterly unobtrusive drawing, the 
just and reasonable color, and the logical and easy 
handling. The uncompromising pose, in his hands, 
counts in the clarity of the characterization as much 
as the homely face, the gnarled, hard-working hands, 
and the neat dress. 

It reminds Dr. Valentiner of Hals, who at the 
time of the picture was at Amsterdam painting 
some of his corporation groups, and whom Rem- 
brandt emulated. 


38 
OLD WOMAN IN AN ARMCHAIR 
By Rembrandt 


” 
= 
=, ot 
\ 
a 
— _ 
‘ 
j 
} 
~ 


Peeeeeeeer Aa tT PN GS--FIFTH ROOM 75 


The quality of pure expression which Rembrandt 
manifests so supremely in the great pictures done 
for his own satisfaction is not apparent in this paint- 
ing. From its tranquil and matter-of-fact appear- 
ance one would little suspect that its author was to 
show himself one of the most unaccountable among 
painters. He seems to have had two natures, as 
Eugéne Fromentin said, the careful practician, clear- 
minded, logical, objectively realistic, as in this work, 
and again the instinctive, inspired visionary, as in 
the Old Woman Cutting Her Nails. 


39 


MAN WITH A MAGNIFYING-GLASS 
By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


This work and its companion piece, The Lady 
with a Pink (No. 41), are believed by Dr. Valentiner 
to represent Titus, the son of Rembrandt, and his 
wife, Magdalena van Loo, and to have been painted 
soon after their marriage in 1668. Dr. Valentiner 
writes of them as follows: ‘She was the daughter 
of two of his oldest friends, Jan van Loo the silver- 
smith and Anna Huybrechts, whose portraits he also 
painted. On the tenth of February, 1668, Titus was 
married to Magdalena, whose age, twenty-seven, was 
the same as his own. One wonders why the union 
was so long postponed. Rembrandt and Anna 
Huybrechts were present at the ceremony. Mag- 
dalena’s father was no longer living. So perhaps it 


76 THE ALTMAN COLLECT HGes 


was he who had caused the long delay. It is the 
married pair that appear in the companion portraits 
of Titus and Magdalena in the Altman Collection, 
which date most probably from the summer of 1668. 
Titus holds a ring (not a magnifying-glass, as has 
often been said) and Magdalena has a flower in her 
hand. ; 

“It is remarkable how near to Rembrandt’s own 
death fell those of the members of his family. Titus 
died in September, 1668, Rembrandt himself on the 
fourth of October, 1669; Anna Huybrechts must have 
died shortly before him, and Magdalena followed on 
the twenty-first of October.” 

The only recorded remark of interest or solicitude 
on the occasion of Rembrandt’s death was made by 
Magdalena. She is reported to have said, “I hope 
Father has not taken Cornelia’s gold pieces, the half 
of which were to come to me.” This Cornelia was 
Rembrandt’s daughter by Hendrickje Stoffels, who 
was with Titus the heir to a sum of money which 
was in Rembrandt’s charge. 

There is a great difference between the apparent 
age of the sitter and that of the person whom it is 
said to represent; Titus died in 1668, in his twenty- 
eighth year, while the man in our painting appears to 
be forty-five or fifty at least. 

When the Lady with a Pink was sold by Mr. 
Sedelmeyer to Rodolphe Kann in 1889, this picture 
was bought, at a price of 45,000 francs, by Maurice 
Kann, the brother of the latter, from whose collec- 
tion Mr. Altman acquired it in 1909. Both pictures 


39 
MAN WITH A MAGNIFYING-GLASS 


By Rembrandt 


Peewee we kN GS +- FIFTH ROOM 77 


were shown by Mr. Altman at the Hudson-Fulton 
Exhibition at the Museum in the same year. 


40 
PILATE WASHING HIS HANDS 
By Rembrandt ao vs 
1606-1669 f 


“The Pilate of the Altman Collection sets forth 
the tragedy of old age no longer willing or able to 
cope with forces stronger than itself. Outside the 
place where Pilate sits is the clamoring populace, 
watching him, clashing its weapons, determined not 
to be balked of its prey. And Pilate yields but 
washes his hands as a symbol of innocence, a sign 
that he does not give his assent. Thus Rembrandt’s 
version of the scene—as far as | know, the only one 
that he attempted—differs materially from the tra- 
ditional version in which Christ is always present. 
Rembrandt did not want two principal figures in 
his drama and, characteristically, left out the Christ 
to make of the aged Pilate the tragic hero. The 
action is entirely between Pilate and the populace 
and, moreover, is but incidentally indicated. As 
we often find in the work of an artist’s late years— 
of a Shakespeare or a Goethe in literature, of a Bee- 
thoven in music—the focus of the action is an ac- 
cessory, an almost trivial, incident. The washing 
of the hands is ceremoniously depicted. The most 
prominent figure is a splendidly dressed boy who, 
with a richly embroidered napkin thrown over his 


78 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


shoulder, is pouring water from a golden ewer upon 
Pilate’s hands. He has nothing whatever to do with 
the emotional content of the drama. In the figure 
of Pilate himself the brocaded mantle is almost more 
noticeable than the head. Nor is the significance 
made clear of the old man behind him who, with his 
white beard and his headband, reminds us of Rem- 
brandt’s Homeric figures. He seems to be one of 
those dumb spectators that were introduced into 
some of the other pictures of Rembrandt’s old age, 
like the Prodigal Son at St. Petersburg, merely to 
supply a contrast to that chief personage whose soul 
is torn by conflicting emotions. In the figure of 
Pilate, however, this conflict is scarcely more than 
suggested. In fact, there is nothing left of the dra- 
matic passion of Rembrandt’s youth. All animated 
expression of emotion is foregone. Pilate, seeming but 
half conscious of the voices of those who are nearest 
him, his exhausted will-power swayed by indefinite 
suggestions, bends his head in dumb and tired sur- 
render. What the picture expresses is the twilight 
mood of one who has already almost passed out of life, 
a last upflaring of dulled but predominantly tragic 
emotions, a speechless brooding in which the confused 
clangor of arms seems to sound from a far distance.” 

This is Dr. Valentiner’s interpretation of the pic- 
‘ture and all that it is necessary to add is its history 
so far as that is known. It comes from the collection 
of Lord Palmerston, in Broadlands, where it was in 
1794. It later belonged to Lord Mount-Temple in 
the same place, and was bought by Mr. Sedelmeyer, 


Peeeteeren dn FEN GS-~ FIF TH ROOM 79 


the Paris dealer, in the late years of the last century, 
and sold to Rodolphe Kann, from whose collection 
Mr. Altman purchased it with eight other paintings 
IN 1907. 


4I 
LADY WITH A PINK 
By Rembrandt 
1606 —1669 


_ This painting and Number 39, the so-called Man 
with a Magnifying-Glass, are companion pieces. 
On the authority of Dr. Valentiner, who has made 
conspicuously successful studies in the matter of 
the identification of the portraits of the painter’s 
family, they represent Magdalena van Loo and her 
husband, Titus, the son of Rembrandt, and were 
painted soon after their marriage in 1668. 

The person in our portrait appears older than the 
twenty-seven years Dr. Valentiner gives her. One 
would say she was nearer forty, but Rembrandt was 
not always careful to give to his sitters their proper 
age, as is known from several documented cases. - 

These pictures remained together as far as is 
known up to about forty years ago. They were 
in the collection of Comte Ferd. d’Oultremont in 
Brussels, who sold them to Charles Sedelmeyer, of 
Paris, in 1889, 75,000 francs being paid for the Lady 
with a Pink. It later passed into the possession of 
Rodolphe Kann; at whose death Maurice Kann ac- 
quired it. Both pictures were bought by Mr. Alt- 
man out of this latter collection. 


80 THE ALTMAN COLLEQGTon 


42 
OLD WOMAN CUTTING HER NAILS 
By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


This, the most remarkable of all the pictures in 
the room, is an example of Rembrandt’s late time 
(the date, somewhat abraded, is 1658); it manifests 
the breadth and beauty of his painting at what seems 
to us today his greatest period, and shows also to ‘nes: 
full his intellectual quality at this time, the profound 
insight into human experience that his work took 
on after fortune and popular favor had passed away 
from him. It was the year of the forced sale of his 
precious collection (itemized in the inventory which 
has come down to us), pictures, engravings, sculp- 
tures, armor and costumes, stuffed animals, bric-a- 
brac, and the like, and the ‘‘fifteen books of various 
sizes’’—the things he had brought together during 
the time of his prosperity. 

“In 1658 all his possessions were of necessity sold 
at auction,” says Wilhelm Valentiner, ‘yet in this 
same year he produced several of the pictures which, 
compromising least with the claims of the actual, 
most clearly reveal his own conceptions, his own 
vision of the world. Such are the portrait of him- 
self in the Frick Collection and that portrait of 
Titus in the Altman Collection which has mistakenly 
been called Haring the Auctioneer. As in these, 
so also in the Woman Trimming Her Nails, his 
art is Rembrandt’s comforter, the expression of 


41 
EADY WITH A PINK 


By Rembrandt 


DUTCH PAINTINGS—FIFTH ROOM 8! 


his self-deliverance, the voice of his most lofty 
idealism.” 

It is a painting of an old woman poorly dressed 
who stops her work to cut her nails. Every part of 
the picture, but in particular the old, furrowed face, 
the stiff, bony hands, the worn body inside the 
coarse clothing are made indicative of the sympathy 
the painter felt, not for his model alone, but for all 
humanity. All seems to have been analyzed for 
what it contains that is expressive and significant to- 
ward this end, so that the work is a poem on old age 
in which the verses are color and light and shadow. 
In Dr. Valentiner’s interpretation the old woman 
has been “transformed into a sibyl far removed from 
the commonplaces of every-day life,’ and this is 
equally just, as the ends of realism and idealism 
meet in pictures of this calibre. 

Its history is uncertain before 1779, when it was 
in the collection of Ingham Foster in England. It 
was bought and taken to Russia by Mr. Bibikoff, of St. 
Petersburg, from whom it passed to Mr. Massaloff in 
Moscow. Inrecent times it belonged to Rodolphe Kann 
and was bought when the Kann Collection was dis- 
posed of in Paris in 1907. 


43 
PORTRAIT: OF THE ARTIST 
By Gerard Dou 
- 1613-1675 
Dou studied under Rembrandt at an early time, 
quitting him in 1630, and like Maes was influenced 


82 THE ALTMAN COLLE@ ? eam 


by the quality of the work his master was produc- 
ing at the time. With Dou this influence persisted 
throughout his whole life. He developed in the 
matter of elaboration, the crowding of detail, and 
a certain effort after picturesqueness. A favorite 
invention in this latter line was the trick of paint- 
ing people at an open window seen from the outside, 
using the mouldings of the window as a sort of frame 
for the figure on the panel itself. He soon found it 
popular to add to this setting bas-reliefs and other 
architectural ornaments, vases of flowers, climbing 
vines, a bird cage, curtains, and one thing or another. 
These accessories occur in the Altman picture, in 
which the painter, when about forty years old, is 
shown standing back of a window, turning the leaves 
of a book with one hand and holding a palette and 
brushes with the other. 

There is an eighteenth-century record of this work 
in the Voyer d’Argenson Collection in 1754. It is 
described in Smith’s Catalogue Raisonné as belonging 
to the Chevalier Erard of Paris, who bought it in 1825 
for 25,000francs. It has since passed through the col- 
lections of Mr. Kalkbrenner and Mr. Say, of Paris, 
and so to its late owner. 


44 
A GIRL ASLEEP 
By Johannes Vermeer 
1632—-ABOUT 1675 
As Vermeer’s life was short and his painting most 
deliberate and painstaking, he produced but few 


42 
OLD WOMAN CUTTING HER NAILS 


By Rembrandt 


DUTCH PAINTINGS—FIFTH ROOM 83 


pictures. Some thirty-nine in all are known to ex- 
ist at this time. Twenty-one of these were sold at 
auction in Amsterdam in 1696 among other paint- 
ings by various artists. Number 8 of this sale, cat- 
alogued as A Drunken Maid Servant Asleep behind 
a Table, by Vermeer, fetched 62 florins. This is the 
Altman picture. It is one of the few authenticated 
paintings by Vermeer now in America, of which two 
others are exhibited in Gallery 26, Young Woman 
with a Water Jug and Lady with a Lute. 

Our picture shows a young girl asleep behind a 
table covered with a Turkey rug, on which are a 
blue dish with fruit, a napkin, a jug, and a knife. 
At the right is a door, half open, leading to another 
room where a table is seen with a small picture 
hanging above it. On the wall back of the figure is 
a picture representing Cupid, only a part of which 
is shown. This is one of Vermeer’s belongings that 
he utilized several times in his backgrounds. Besides 
its use in the Altman picture, it occurs in A Lady ata 
Spinet, which is in the National Gallery, and again in 
The Music Lesson, in the Henry C. Frick Collection. 

Vermeer’s supreme quality is his painting of the 
cool, diffused light of an ordinary room. Each part 
of his pictures is steeped in light. Though every 
detail is insisted upon, his handling remains broad 
and ample, and he attains a beauty of smooth, lus- 
trous surface that has never been exceeded. 

Though counted among Rembrandt’s pupils, he 
never studied directly with the master, having been 
taught by Rembrandt’s scholar, Carel Fabritius. 


84 THE ALTMAN COLT EB Gere 


The influence of the great genius, which is so apt to be 
crushing to the young artist, was far enough removed 
in his case to enable him to follow hisown trend, which 
he attained at an early age and varied but slightly 
afterward. On this account it is difficult to assign a se- 
quence to his production beyond his earliest examples. 

The picture was exhibited by Mr. Altman at the 
Hudson-Fulton Celebration at the Museum in 19009. 
It comes from the Rodolphe Kann Collection. 


45 
LADY PLAYING THE THEORBO™ 
By Gerard Terborch 
1617-1681 


Terborch is the most aristocratic of the Dutch 
genre painters. His subjects are similar to those of 
Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, and Metsu. He was 
formed in the influence of Rembrandt but his style 
was modified by that of Hals, Van Dyck (with whom 
he came in contact during a visit to London in 1635), 
and Velazquez, who seems to have been a deter- 
mining factor in his development. The Velazquez 
traits are particularly evident in his portraits, small 
pictures of the most austere arrangement, mostly 
full lengths in a silvery gray tone with little or no 
positive hue. His gamut of colors reminds us of 
Whistler’s, but his drawing is far more impersonal 
and his point of view more anonymous. Distinc- 
tion and reserve were the qualities he cultivated, 
though at one stage of his career, of which the Sol- 


DUTCH PAINTINGS—FIFTH ROOM 85 


dier and a Young Woman in the Louvre is a famous 
example, his characterization is more decided. Gen- 
erally, however, his personages are attractive types 
of the upper middle class. This is the case in the 
models for the Altman picture. 

A young lady in a blue jacket trimmed with er- 
mine is seated beside a table playing the theorbo, 
her music book before her. A gentleman with long 
hair, his hat on his knee, sits on the table listening 
to her music. A watch is close to his hand, and as 
one is tempted to read a story in these pictures one 
would say that she is finishing her practising while her 
impatient cavalier waits to start on the walk or visit 
which they have arranged. There is a fireplace back 
of the lady and a map is hanging on the wall. 

Terborch painted a number of pictures of a simi- 
lar motive, ladies making music and listening gen- 
tlemen, music parties, music lessons, and so forth. 
The one which resembles our picture most closely 
is in the Dresden Gallery. Here the people and 
the setting are the same, the lady in the same pose 
though the gentleman has a different posture. 

The Lady Playing the Theorbo was acquired by 
Mr. Altman out of the collection of Lord Ashburton 
in England. 

46 
PORTRAIT OF A MAN 
By Rembrandt 
1606-1669 


According to an inscription of a later date than 
the painting, which has since been removed, this is 


86 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


the portrait of Cornelius Jansenius. The inscription 
was at the top of the panel and read: Portrait de 
Jansenius pére d’une nombreuse famille mort en 
1638 agé de 53 ans. A false date of 1661 followed 
the inscription. Smith, in his Catalogue Raisonné, 
describing the picture in the early part of the last 
century, at which time it belonged to Lord Ash- 
burton, thought that the portrait must have been 
done from another portrait or drawing by order of 
some friend or admirer of the deceased bishop. The 
style of the work shows that it must have been 
painted in the early forties, and Wilhelm Bode cata- 
logues it as An Elderly Man with a‘Pointed Gray 
Beard, erroneously called Cornelius Jansenius. 

It was sold in Paris in 1811 from the collection of |. 
Mr. Séréville for 5,071 francs, and belonged later to 
the Prince de Talleyrand. Smith, the compiler of 
the Catalogue Raisonné, bought it in 1831 for £500 
and from him it passed to the collection of Lord 
Ashburton, in the hands of whose descendant it re- 
mained until recent times. 


47 
YOUNG HERDSMEN WITH COWS 
By Aelbert Cuyp 
1620-1691 
The cattle pictures for which Cuyp is chiefly fa- 
mous were but one of the branches of painting which 
he practised. He painted everything—landscapes, 
portraits, animals, genre scenes of gentlefolk or peas- 


PULTtecn PAINTINGS—FIFTH ROOM 87 


ants, and still life. His landscapes with their golden 
haze appear to have been at first the outcome of 
those of Jan van Goyen, but he developed the man- 
ner of his prototype into something far more weighty 
and robust, at the same time retaining and even ac- 
centuating the effect of enveloping air. “A beauti- 
ful Cuyp,” says Eugéne Fromentin, “is a painting 
at the same time subtle and heavy, tender and 
robust, aérial and massive.” 

The Young Herdsmen with Cows comes from the 
Rodolphe Kann Collection and has been cited by 
various authorities, Bode, Michel, De Groot, and 
others. It is a picture of the end of an afternoon 
with cows lying or standing in a field by a river 
bank. They are guarded by young herdsmen who 
are talking to a woman whose back is toward the 
spectator. Across the river is a wide view of undu- 
lating country, with the distance lost in the golden 
light which pervades the picture. The work is signed 
below at the left: A. Cuyp. 


48 
MAN WITH A STEEL GORGET 


By Rembrandt 
1606—1669 


This picture is dated 1644, a year or so later than 
the famous Night Watch, the style of which it ap- 
proaches. The pose of the sitter in our picture is 
similar to that of Banning Cocq, the central figure 
of that famous work, particularly in the posture of 


88 THE ALTMAN COLLECQ?7 oa 


the hand held out in front of the figure. It is an 
effort to secure relief and depth in the work, “a 
desire to produce something startling, something as 
yet unachieved in portraiture,” says Dr. Valentiner. 

Under the title Le Connétable de Bourbon, Smith 
in his Catalogue Raisonné describes our picture 
when it was in the collection of Lord Radstock, in 
London, in 1826. It was sold in London in 1881 for 
850 pounds, Io shillings, and has passed through the 
collections of E. Secretan of Paris and Adolphe Thiem 
of San Remo, who paid 23,000 francs for it in 1889. 


49 oe 
INTERIOR WITH A YOUNG COUPLE 
By Pieter de Hooch ee i 


1629— AFTER 1677 


The connection between Pieter de Hooch and 
Rembrandt is not established by records, but the 
influence either of Rembrandt or of his pupils is 
evident in much of De Hooch’s work. The painter 
began his career as footman and painter in the house 
of a rich merchant, Justus La Grange, who is known 
to have owned many of the artist’s early pictures. 
After leaving La Grange’s service he settled in Delft 
where Vermeer was living, and in emulation or imi- 
tation of this master, De Hooch’s best painting was 
produced. Many of his pictures of this time have 
been mistaken for works of the greater artist. His 
place in the Rembrandt influence is somewhere 
between that of Vermeer and Nicolaes Maes, both 


DUTCH PAINTINGS—FIFTH ROOM 89 


of whom he recalls. His peculiar accomplishment 
was the expression of the calm and peace of the 
Dutch houses, their tempered light, simple comfort, 
and immaculate tidiness. His interiors show us that 
the Dutch housewife of the seventeenth century was 
as scrupulous in sweeping and dusting as her descend- 
ant of today. He is fond of opening doors in his 
background and showing the room beyond with quiet 
light streaming in at a window, or perhaps a glimpse 
of a garden or a street with a sluggish canal beyond. 

The Interior with a Young Couple is a charac- 
teristic production. In front of a bed by an open 
window a young woman is standing. At her left 
sits a man who snaps his fingers to call a little dog. 
Another room with gilt leather hangings shows 
through a door beyond. Hofstede de Groot places 
the picture around 1665 and in the artist’s best period. 
This date is toward the end of De Hooch’s sojourn 
in Delft. His work deteriorated steadily after this 
time, as he sacrificed his great talent in the effort 
to be popular, to paint grand people in rich costumes 
and magnificent halls. 

The picture was formerly in the collection of 
Rodolphe Kann. 


50 


THE MERRY COMPANY 
By Frans Hals 
1584 ?°—-1666 


A man with a flushed face and a string of sau-~ 
sages, pickled herring, and pigs’ feet about his 


90 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


shoulder holds on his knee a young woman of none 
too sober appearance. They sit before a table on 
which are all sorts of food and drink and a stein with 
the signature F. H. in Gothic letters. Two men are 
standing back of them; the one at the right leans on 
the chair-back and looks down at the lady with an 
expression which shows that they understand one 
another. The other, with a wooden spoon stuck in 
his cap, yawns as he holds his hand to his face. Fal- 
staff and Doll Tearsheet at the inn of Dame Quickly, 
one would say, with Poins and Bardolph looking 
on. i! 

The three pictures by Hals “in the Altman Col- 
lection (Nos. 28, 29, and 50) all show the artist in 
his most jovial and rollicking mood. ey seem 
to have been selected with the purpose of showing 
the wide difference in outlook between him and Rem- 
brandt. There could be no further extremes in ex- 
pression than between the boisterous humor of this 
picture and the other Hals on this wall, on the one 
side, and on the other the deep comprehension and 
the all-encompassing pity in the Old Woman Cutting 
Her Nails. Hals had his sober times, as the portraits 
of a Man and a Woman (in the Marquand Gallery) 
testify, but even in the days of depression of his old 
age, he could not lose the chance to laugh in his 
sleeve at his models and bring out their droll 
peculiarities. 

Pictures like these in the Altra Collection are 
the records of a frankly jolly life without any Puri- 
tan restrictions. They are renderings of the gay 


50 
THE MERRY COMPANY 
By Frans Hals 


Perse ALENT UENGS-~- FIFTH ROOM 9! 


life in the taverns, or other places of worse repute. 
“The Catalogues,’”’ says Wilhelm Bode, speaking of 
paintings of this sort in his Masters of Dutch and 
Flemish Painting, “‘usually describe the society rep- 
resented in these pictures as aristocratic society, 
but the old Dutch catalogues of sales leave no doubt 
about the matter as they briefly designate them as 
bordeedtjes or something similar.” 

The virtuosity in these works is even more brilliant 
and astounding than in his portrait commissions. 
This freedom of handling and color is particularly 
noticeable in the two principal heads in the Merry 
Company. They seem to have been done ina half . 
hour of great exhilaration, and the rest of the pic- 
ture—the two men who stand back, the carefully 
executed still-life, and the almost painfully exact 
lace collar and the embroidered stomacher—appear 
to be the work of a much calmer time. 

Dr. Bode dates this work at about 1616. From 
E. W. Moes’s Life of Frans Hals we learn that at 
about this time the artist was a member of the Haar- 
lem society of De Wyngaerdtranken (the branch of 
the vine) and also of another club called Lieft looven 
al (Love first of all). His membership in these 
organizations may have fostered the type of subject 
of which these Altman pictures give such lively ex- 
amples. 

The painting was exhibited at the Hudson-Fulton. 
Exhibition at the Museum in 1909. It was formerly 
in the collection of Mr. Cocret, Paris. Dirck Hals, the 
younger brother of the painter, copied with slight 


Q2 THE ALTMAN COLLEGT Pon 


variations the figures in our picture for the principal 
group of his Féte Champétre in the Louvre. 


51 
YOUNG GIRL PEELING APPLES 
By Nicolaes Maes 
1632-1693 

Nicolaes Maes was a pupil of Rembrandt, whose 
studio he entered about 1650. His best work, 
painted before he reached middle age, shows the 
impress of Rembrandt’s manner at the time Maes 
fell under his influence®, Rembrandt’s Portrait of 
Titus of this collection, painted In 1655, gives the 
approximate style which Maes imitated. Genre 
subjects such as the Altman picture are conceived 
in the style of his master’s biblical subjects of this 
epoch. The handling, color, and concentrated sun- 
light all come directly out of Rembrandt, but the 
motive is his own and has the simplicity and direct- 
ness which he preferred. 

Against a plain wall, from which a lamp is hang- 
ing, sits a homely young woman intent on her work. 
On a table beside her, covered with a carpet, is a 
basket of apples, and on the floor is a bucket for 
the peelings. The scene is lighted by a bright ray 
of sunlight. It is a study from some member of his 
household probably. There area charm and a con- 
tentment that never wear out about these simple 
Daintings without any labored composition or under- 
- lving idea. 


51 
VOUNG GIRLIPEELING APPLES 


By Nicolaes Maes 


eieteor aN LT INGS--FIFTH ROOM 93 


The work was in England in the early part of the 
last century. It was in the collection of Ralph 
Bernal in the twenties, where it was seen by Smith 
and described in his Catalogue Raisonné. Mr. Alt- 
man acquired it from the Rodolphe Kann Collec- 
tion, which was dispersed in 1907. 


ected 


GOLD AND ENAMEL TRIPTYCH 
Milanese, late fifteenth century 


Goldsmith’s Work 
Third Room 


| two cases in the middle of Room 3 are 
arranged with the smaller and more precious 
objects in the Benjamin Altman Collection. In 
describing them the four pieces of goldsmith’s work 
and jewelry in Case A will be discussed first. Next, 
the rock crystals will be described, proceeding from 
the four pieces in Case A to the remaining pieces in 
Case B. Finally the enamels will be taken as a 
‘whole, passing from the two earlier pieces in Case A, 
Room 3, to the remaining pieces in the central case 
in Room 4. 

In Case A the eye is immediately attracted by an 
exquisite triptych of Milanese workmanship of the 
late fifteenth century; the oval of the triptych proper 
surmounted by a crucifix with the figure of our Lord. 
The doors are of gold enameled in translucent colors 
—basse-taille—with a representation of the Nativity 
on the outer side; on the inside, to the right and left 
respectively, are the Delphic and Erythraean Sibyls, 
who were supposed to have foretold the Virgin Birth. 

These doors, when open, show a superb clouded agate 
- with an intaglio of Saint Sebastian. On the reverse 

97 


08 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


of the central panel, in translucent enamels on gold, 
is a splendid vesica-shaped glory with a representa- 
tion of our Lady and the Holy Child as described - 
in the words of the Apocalypse, “‘And there appeared 
a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the 
sun and the moon under her feet.” The scrolls bear 
the usual inscriptions, Primo genitum peperit filium 
suum, “‘she brought forth her first born son,” and on 
the reverse, Ora pro nobis S. Sebastiane, “pray for us, 
Saint Sebastian.” 

To a great many, the history of goldsmith’s work 
and jewelry in the sixteenth century centers around 
the name of one man—Benvenuto Cellini. Gold- 
smith, jeweler, sculptor, and medalist, a protégé of 
popes and princes, he has left to us in his Autobi- 
ography a singularly vivid and picturesque account 
of his life. While it is impossible to accept at face 
value the belief in his powers which a candid self- 
glorification reveals to us, or even to allow him a place 
as a genius who has moulded an age or founded a 
school, his fame rests secure as an extraordinary artist 
and a most admirable and splendid technician, versed 
in all the secrets of his art. 

One of the greatest treasures of the Altman Collec- 
tion is the cup or salt cellar of gold and enamel, 
executed by Benvenuto Cellini in the second quarter 
of the sixteenth century, and generally called the 
Rospigliosi cup (Case A). It belonged formerly to 
Prince Rospigligsi of Rome, who inherited it from his 
grandfather, Prince D. Clementi Rospigliosi, Grand 
Master at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. 


eee 


SSE 


Creo GOLD eAND ENAMEL, CALLED THE 
ROSPIGLIOSI CUP 


By Benvenuto Cellini 


GOLDSMITH’ S WORK—THIRD ROOM 99 


Prince Rospigliosi did not have any documents of a 
nature to establish positively the absolute authentic- 
ity of the attribution. On the other hand, modern crit- 
icism has been able to trace definitely, from the 
descriptions in Cellini’s writings, but one of the larger 
pieces which Benvenuto classed under the compre- 
hensive term “grosseria.”” ‘This single piece, the salt 
cellar made for Francis I of France, is now at Vienna. 
However, Plon and other scholars, who have devoted 
themselves to a study of Cellini and his works, hold 
that this “Rospigliosi Cup” is undoubtedly his 
handiwork; the sumptuousness of the design, the sub- 
tlety of its workmanship, and the richness of the 
enameling corresponding to a taste of which no other 
artist of the time was capable. The cup, fashioned in 
the form of a shell, rests upon a fantastical dragon 
with wings outstretched, which in turn is supported 
by a tortoise enameled in yellow and black. But it is 
on the sphinx seated upon the rim of the shell that 
Cellini has lavished the utmost resources of his work- 
manship. The figure is beautifully modeled; the 
wings and tail enameled with transparent greens, reds, 
and blues of an extraordinary brilliance; a great pearl 
hangs from her breast and smaller pearls areinherears. 

Another piece in Case A, a cup of jasper, also in 
the form of a shell, is mounted in enameled gold. A 
fanciful marine dog sits on the lip of the cup. Itisa 
charming piece of workmanship, quite characteristic 
of the more florid taste of the later part of the six- 
teenth century. It was formerly in the Spitzer Col- 
lection. 


100 THE ALIMAN COLD Eh 


The most distinctive form of Renaissance jewelry 
is the pendant. With the exception of crucifixes, it 
usually takes the form, in the later part of the six- 
teenth century, of an elaborate figure subject, the 
precious stones in themselves being of secondary im- 
portance. Very typical is the pendant in Case A. 
It is of gold, the beautifully modeled and enameled 
figure of Neptune standing in an architectural niche, 
while on the reverse Neptune rides upon his sea 
chariot drawn by the dolphins. It is set with dia- 
monds and rubies and with the pendent pearls which 
~~ are particularly characteristic of jewelry of this period. 


Crystals 
Third Room 


CANDLESTICKS OF ROCK GRYSTAL 
AND SILVER-GILT 


German, sixteenth century 


Crystals 
Third Room 


of quartz, possessing a double refraction of 

light. It is usually white in color but at times 
brown, black, or yellow. Although we know this, the 
world for long centuries labored under the misappre- 
hension of the ancients, stated by Pliny in his famous 
Natural History and quoted by Sir Thomas Browne 
in his work on Vulgar Errors, that “Crystal is noth- 
ing but snow or ice concreted, and, by duration of 
time, congealed beyond liquation.” Perhaps it was 
this unique quality of the rock crystal, as well as its 
peculiar natural beauty, which gave it value in the 
ancient world; for while crystals have been and are 
found in many places on the earth’s surface, fine 
pieces capable of being fashioned into vessels of suffi- 
cient size are rare. 

Among the Egyptians and the Assyrians it was 
used to some extent for sacred scarabs and cylindrical 
seals and among the Greeks and the Romans for in- 
taglios—a fact sufficiently attested by the few we 
have in modern collections. The Greeks also fashioned 
the crystal into vases, some examples of early date 

103 


Ra: CRYSTAL is a pure, translucent variety 


104 THE ALTMAN CORTE Ga 


coming from Cyprus. But it was above all at Rome, 
in the period of greatest luxury under the Empire, 
that this precious material came to be regarded as of 
extreme value and to be sought for, so that it might 
be worked into drinking cups. A mania took posses- 
sion of the fashionable world, enormous sums being 
paid for perfect vessels. We know that Nero, in- 
formed that his Empire was lost to him, dashed to 
the ground two crystal bowls engraved with scenes 
from Homer, that the world should be the poorer by 
their loss and that he might in some degree revenge 
himself upon mankind. 

With the decline and fall of the Empire the demand 
and the art declined, yet we find mention of crystals 
here and there through all the Middle Ages in chron- 
icles and inventories. We read that Gregory X, in 
1271, sent by Marco Polo “many fine vessels of crys- 
tal as presents to the Great Khan,” the most splendid 
and precious things that the Pope could command. 

But it was at the beginning of the fifteenth century 
that rock-crystal carving again came into its own, 
reaching the height of its popularity and technical 
perfection in the sixteenth century. It is to this 
period, with one exception, that the pieces in the 
collection belong. 

The first piece in date (CAsE A) is a covered cup 
of German workmanship, the only fifteenth-century 
example in this collection. The cup is cut to twelve 
faces, each decorated with circular depressions, the 
foot supported by three putti, the whole mounted in 
silver-gilt, set with jewels of a barbaric beauty—sap- 


meee OF ROCK CRYSTAL 
AND ENAMELED GOLD 


Italian, sixteenth century 


PORTABLE HOLY-WATER STOUP 
Italian, sixteenth century 


Seto ee 


nities U, 


ea” = 


Se ee 


rere rALS—~—- THIRD ROOM 105 


phires, rubies, emeralds, and pearls. The significant 
fact is that the cup exhibits no traces of the engrav- 
er’s art and shows plainly that the Gothic traditions 
had not as yet lost their force. In general, we may 
say that the crystal workers of the fifteenth century 
relied very little upon the engraver. It remained for 
the artists of the sixteenth and later centuries to add 
the beauties of engraving to their other resources. 
Compare this piece with the covered cup in the same 
case, also of German workmanship, but of the six- 
teenth century. Here there is no trace of Gothic 
influence. The Renaissance spirit has triumphed and 
the cup is engraved with the most graceful of floral 
arabesques. The other pieces in Case A, the ewer 
of German workmanship, set with rubies, and the 
reliquary of Italian workmanship, are also of the six- 
teenth century. This reliquary, oval in form, is deco- 
rated with a panel representing the Annunciation, 
in verre eglomisé, a term that has come to be used for 
all painting on the reverse of glass or rock crystal, so 
called from a French artist, Glomi, of the eighteenth 
century, who rediscovered or reapplied an old 
art. 

In the other case (CAsE B) are gathered the princi- 
pal pieces, an extraordinary collection of sumptuous 
works. Two German pricket candlesticks of the six- 
teenth century were doubtless intended for an altar 
of importance; their bases are of silver-gilt decorated 
with delightful figures of animals in repoussé work. 
In the center is a tazza, remarkable not only for 
size and beauty of proportion, but for the enameled 


1006 THE ALTMAN COLLEGTEON 


gold setting, jeweled with rubies, sapphires, and 
pearls. 

An important Italian piece of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, a portable holy-water stoup, formed part of 
the ecclesiastical furniture of the great Spanish 
cathedral of Valencia, and was used in its ceremo- 
nials, carried by an acolyte as the priest sprinkled 
the congregation with the holy water before the 
celebration of the high mass. It is of perfect form, 
the body gadrooned and engraved with floral 
festoons, the handle mounted in gold enameled in 
beautiful colors and set with pigeon-blood rubies. 
Another noteworthy piece is the plate attributed to 
Valerio Belli, called I] Vicentino, whose work marks 
the culmination of the crystal engraver’s art in the 
first half of the sixteenth century. This piece merits 
the attribution by the refinement of its technique 
and the classical treatment closely resembling the 
workmanship in pieces definitely known to be from 
his hand. 

The pax came from a chapel in the Cathedral of 
Avila in Spain. It is of unusual beauty, prob- 
ably of Milanese workmanship. In design it corre- 
sponds to a type generally introduced in the four- 
teenth century when the pax took a form inspired by 
the architecture of the period. In the same manner 
this pax, dating as it does from the sixteenth century, 
reflects the more florid architectural fancy of the 
High Renaissance. The central representation of the 
Adoration of the Magi is in verre eglomisé, framed in 
gold set with pigeon-blood rubies, which vie with the 


EWER OF SMOKE-COLOR ROCK CRYSTAL 
German, sixteenth century 


ROSE-WATER VASE OF ROCK CRYSTAL 


Italian, sixteenth century 


Beer A oT AIR D- ROOM 107 


glowing colors in the robes of Our Lady, Saint Joseph, 
and the three Magi. The plinth and the entablature 
are decorated with circular medallions in verre eglo- 
misé, representing a Doctor of the Church, Saint 
John, Saint Peter, a Bishop, Mary Magdalen, and 
Saint Francis. The entablature is surmounted by 
Saint George and the Dragon in enameled gold. 

In the early Christian church before the celebra- 
tion of the Eucharist, the Bishop saluted the congre- 
gation with the words, ‘The peace of God be with 
you,” the congregation answering, “And with thy 
spirit.’ Thereupon the deacon bade them salute 
each other with a Kiss of Peace in sign of a perfect 
reconciliation, the clerics embracing the bishop and 
the laymen each other, the men the men and the 
women the women. In the thirteenth century this 
practice had fallen into general disuse, partly owing 
to the fact that the church had departed from its 
original custom, the male and the female worshipers 
no longer being separated during the service. In lieu 
of this, the church substituted the pax, upon which 
the worshipers bestowed the Kiss of Peace. Now 
the pax is not ordinarily used. The members of 
the clergy in the service of the mass give the Kiss of 
Peace as they did in the early church, but the con- 
gregation no longer takes part in the ceremony. 

The four other pieces in Case B, probably of the 
late sixteenth century, while lacking the perfection 
of the finest period, still show a splendid vigor of de- 
sign and technique. Notable is the smoky crystal 
ewer of German workmanship, particularly interest- 


108 THE ALTMAN COLLECT. 


ing as the only example in this collection of a beauti- 
ful and much prized variety of crystal. The three 
other pieces are of Italian workmanship: the bowl 
with the dolphin handles; the cup in the form of a 
lobed shell, an eagle resting on the lip; and the rose- 
water vase used to sprinkle the hands of the guests 
at ceremonial banquets. 


Enamels 


Third and Fourth Rooms 


Enamels 


Third and Fourth Rooms 


into a paste by the addition of water, colored 

by the various metallic oxides, applied as the 
artist may desire to the metallic base, and fused in 
the heat of the furnace. Whatever the technical 
method, be it cloisonné, champlevé, basse-taille, or 
painted enamel, this vitrified paste is the medium 
with which the artist works. Cloisonné was the 
earliest method used. Upon the metal base, usually 
gold, the intricacies of the design were traced by 
means of tiny flattened wires soldered to the ground. 
The cloisons, that is, the compartments so formed, 
were then filled with the various pastes, fused, and 
the surface smoothed and polished. This was the 
method of the Byzantine school. Champlevé, the 
mediaeval process, was the direct opposite of cloi- 
sonné. The artist with his burin hollowed out the 
metallic surface, later filling his design with the 
enamel to form a champlevé or field of color raised to 
the original level of the surface. In the late twelfth 
and the thirteenth century this technique reached 
the fullest development in the great French school 

111 


H ina in essence is glass—powdered, made 


I12 THE ALTMAN COLL A 


of Limoges and the German schools of the Rhine 
and the Moselle.! 


Third Room 


In this collection there is one example of champlevé 
enamel, from Limoges, a chasse in CAse A, Room 3, 
dating from the second half of the thirteenth century. 
The chasse, the most common type of mediaeval 
reliquary, represents in form a gabled building, and 
was intended to house the relics of a saint or martyr. 
This example is particularly effective in color, the 
figures of the Blessed Saviour, Saint James and 
Saint John, the Agnus Dei and the angels, which are 
reserved in the copper-gilt, contrasting splendidly 
with the enameled cobalt ground, the light blue and 
the turquoise of the medallions. In technique it 
shows workmanship typical of the later half of the 
thirteenth century when the figures were reserved in 
the metal and the background enameled, an exact 
reversal of the earlier practice. 

In the fourteenth century a new process of enam- 
eling, probably originating in Italy, became popular. 
It is known as basse-taille, or enameling with trans- 
lucent colors on sunk relief. The base is usually silver, 
but sometimes gold was used for particularly sumptu- 
ous pieces. In this same case is an example of this 
translucent enamel, a diptych of Italian workman- 
ship of the fifteenth century. One wing bears a 
representation of the Adoration of the Magi; the 


1O0f these champlevé enamels a remarkable collection is exhibited in 
the Morgan Wing, Galleries F 2 and 3. 


BPNAM™MELS-—TIHIRD ROOM 113 


other, the Adoration of the Shepherds. It is a very 
splendid piece, the high lights and the flesh tones 
painted in opaque white, the reflected light from the 
silver ground enhancing the blues, golds, pinks, and 
greens of the translucent enamel. 

In the second half of the fifteenth century the proc- 
ess of painted enamel began to supplant the earlier 
methods in popular favor, and was speedily brought 
to perfection, especially at Limoges which became 
once more the great center of the enameler’s art. 
This painted enamel was a complete revolution in 
technique. It was found that the enamel needed no 
cloisons or channels to attach it to the surface, if the 
metal plate, usually of copper, was covered on both 
sides with the enamel. The face of the plate was 
therefore usually covered with a white enamel and 
the reverse with a counter-enamel of waste. Upon the 
enamel base the design was painted in the desired 
colors, the enamels being united with the base by 
fusion. 


Fourth Room 


Seven examples of this technique are exhibited in 
Case A, Room 4. The earliest piece is the Kiss 
of Judas by “Monvaerni.”’ This, in all probability, 
was not the artist’s name, but by a curious mistake 
it has come to be applied to a class of primitives 
with certain characteristics of style which can be 
roughly dated to the last quarter of the fifteenth 
century. The dominant colors are blue and gold. 
The blue ground is sprinkled with clouds and stars 


114 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


of gold and the greater part of the robes are blue but 
with innumerable cross-hatchings of gold. The style 
is harshly realistic but forceful; a tense dramatic 
feeling animates the crowded composition. Another 
plaque of the “Monvaerni” group, representing the 
Crucifixion, is in the Morgan Collection (Gallery F 4). 
The most celebrated of the Limoges enamelers of 
the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century is Nar- 
don Pénicaud, who was born about 1470 and lived 
until 1542 or 1543. The enamels of this period are 
_ rarely signed or dated, but happily, a fine enamel in 
the Cluny Museum, representing the Crucifixion, 
bears Nardon’s name and the date 1503 (new style 
1504). Consequently, it is possible by comparison 
to assign with reasonable certainty to Nardon or to 
his: atelier a group of enamels showing the same 
stylistic peculiarities as the Cluny plaque. 
Belonging to this group are the wings of a trip- 
tych in Case A representing the Angel Gabriel and 
the Blessed Virgin, this scene of the Annunciation 
flanking a central panel of the Nativity and Adora- 
tion of the Shepherds. The wings and the central 
panel were not made originally to go together. The 
wings are characteristic enamels of the atelier of 
Nardon Pénicaud, if not perhaps the work of the 
master himself. The central plaque is different in 
style, although of the same period—the beginning 
of the sixteenth century—and may be assigned to 
the so-called Atelier of the Large Foreheads, a name 
given to a group of Limoges enamels showing the 
peculiarity indicated by this designation, | 


ENAMELS—FOURTH ROOM 115 


Other productions of this Atelier of the Large 
Foreheads are the wings of a second triptych in the 
collection; they represent the Nativity and the 
Circumcision. The central plaque, having for sub- 
ject the Annunciation, is a work of the Atelier of the 
Triptych of Louis XII, a designation given to a group 
of enamels of the epoch of Nardon Pénicaud that are 
similar in style to the triptych of the Annunciation 
with portraits of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne, 
now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the most 
important enamel in this group. The magnificent 
Altman enamel, formerly in the Spitzer, Hainauer, 
and other well-known collections, and the two panels 
forming the wings were not originally together. 
Armorial plaques of modern enamel have been added 
to equalize the uneven proportions of the panels. An- 
other splendid example of these Limoges enamels of 
the beginning of the sixteenth century is a triptych 
representing the Nativity with the Adoration of the 
Shepherds and, on the wings, the scene of the An- 
nunciation. This triptych, formerly in the Hainauer 
Collection, is another characteristic production of 
the Atelier of the Triptych of Louis XII. 

In general these painted enamels of Nardon 
Pénicaud and of his contemporaries exhibit a re- 
strained palette in which dark blue, violet, and green 
are conspicuous. The overabundance of detail and 
the insistence on gold, so characteristic of ‘‘Mon- 
vaerni,’’ are lacking, but the whole picture is studded 
with “‘jewels”—solid lumps of glass fused upon the 
surface of the enamel. The flesh tones have the 


110 THE ALTMAN COLLE Oa 


curious violet tinge typical of the early work, when 
the enameler had no reds, except a very deep shade, 
and was compelled to use a faint wash of manganese 
as a substitute. 

Léonard Limousin is one of the most splendid 
figures in the long list of French enamelers. He was 
born about 1505 at Limoges, but the decisive fact of 
his life was his removal to Paris at the command of 
the King. There he came into direct contact with 
the new movement, for Francis I was the great patron — 
of the French Renaissance. In Nardon Pénicaud 


~~-we have the lingering Gothic influence; in Léonard 


Limousin, the untrammeled art of the full Renais- 
sance. His art covered a wide field, for he fashioned 
not only decorative pieces and plaques but a very 
large number of portraits. These portraits are his 
most characteristic works, since they constitute his 
personal contribution to the history of enameling. 
CasE A contains two very typical pieces, the portraits 
of two well-known Huguenots, Francgois de Maurel 
and Claude Condinet. They are signed in a usual 
manner, L L, and both are dated 1550, when Léonard 
Limousin was at the height of his powers. 

In the same case is a plate by Jean Limousin, 1528- 
1610, probably a close relative of Léonard, although 
it is impossible to establish the exact relationship. 
The plate is decorated with pure Renaissance ara- 
besques and masks, and with a _ representation 
of Abimelech gazing down from the top of a classic 
portico upon Isaac and Rebekah, while in the 
background the herdsmen of Gerak and Isaac strive 


Canquar qjuaaxts aq7 fo sutuutsag ‘qIuadf 


TIX stmoT fo qodgdiay aq, fo sayap 
TAWVNA SHDOWI!IT AO HOALdI YL 


Peas bs FOURTH ROOM 117 


for the wells of Esek and Sitnah. The colors are 
very striking, the opaque enamels contrasting with 
the pazllons—small areas of translucent enamel on 
a base of silver foil. The reverse is decorated with 
painted ornament in grisaille. 


Sculpture 


ay 


i 


j 
4 u 
j 
‘ 
‘ . 
af 


Sculpture 


Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh Rooms 


HE sculpture, which is distributed through 
Rooms 4, 6, and 7, is numbered according to 


the order in which it is placed. Thus the 
visitor who uses this Handbook will begin with the 
marble Bust of a Youth, No. 52, School of Verrocchio, 
at his left as he enters from Room 3, passing next 
to the marble group, Virtue Overcoming Vice, by 
Giovanni da Bologna, at the left, and proceeding 
always in that direction until he is again at the point 
where he entered. Nos. 69 to 72 are in Room 6; 
Nos. 73-78 in Room 7. 

Among the twenty-seven pieces of sculpture, the 
Italian school of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
has the largest representation, fifteen examples in 
all—marble, terracotta, stucco, and bronze. There 
are eight French sculptures of the eighteenth cen- 
tury and one of the sixteenth. Late Gothic and 
Renaissance sculpture in Germany and Holland 
is represented by two examples. The number 
is completed by a Roman bust of the classical 
period. 


122 THE ALTMAN COLLE Oeaaae 
Fourth Room 


52 
BUST OF A YOUTH 
School of Verrocchio 
FLORENTINE, FIFTEENTH CENTURY 


The round-faced smoothness of adolescence in this 
lifelike bust of an unknown youth does not conceal the 
personality which is never lacking in the Florentine 
character during the Renaissance. Verrocchio, the 
sculptor of the great equestrian figure of Colleone in 
Venice, was signally gifted in translating this strength 
of personality into stone or bronze. This bust cannot 
be definitely ascribed to one particular member 
of Verrocchio’s following, but it shows the high 
quality characteristic of his immediate school, al- 
though some critics hold it to be a work of an artist 
influenced rather by Mino da Fiesole than by the 
less suave, more rigorous, and greater master. The 
bust was long owned by the Ricasoli family in 
Florence. 


a3 


VIRTUE OVERCOMING VICE 
By Giovanni Bologna (Jehan Boulogne) 
FLEMISH, ABOUT 1524-1608 


Born in Flanders, Gian Bologna worked most of his 
lifein Florence. Although a foreigner, he dominated 
the late period of Renaissance sculpture in Italy. His 
style, showing the influence of Michelangelo, is 
characterized by a mannered but vigorous classicism. 


Sowers RE--~FOURTH ROOM 123 


The relief belonging to the Museum, representing 
Florence overcoming Siena, or—to use the more fa- 
miliar title—Virtue Overcoming Vice, shows the 
sculptor’s suave yet lively modeling of the human 
figure, which he has here contrived to make heroic 
in effect in spite of the smallness of the actual dimen- 
sions of his marble. It should be noted that the 
architectural background of this piece is a later ad- 
dition and not part of the sculptor’s original design, 
which may be seen in the large marble group, exe- 
cuted probably about 1566, now in the Bargello, 
Florence. 


54 
CHARLES IX, KING OF FRANCE 
By Germain Pilon 
FRENCH, 1535-1590 


Pilon spent most of the productive period of his 
life in working for the French Court, which under 
Catherine de’ Medici and her sons, offered employ- 
ment to a host of artists in widely diversified fields. 
Among the sculptors of the epoch, Pilon was the most 
successful, his only considerable rival being Jean Gou- 
jon, whose genius was constantly thwarted by ill luck. 

The marble head included in the Altman bequest is 
interesting not only as an evidence of Pilon’s tech- 
nical attainments, but also for its historical signifi- 
cance. The subject is Charles IX, King of France, 
and second son of Henry I] and Catherine de’ Medici. 
He was born in 1550 and bore the title of Duc d’Or- 
léans until on the death of his brother he ascended 


124 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


the throne in 1560. He died in 1574, remembered 
chiefly, and not enviably, as having been the tool of 
his mother and the instrument through which she 
brought about the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, 
which the King decreed in 1572. The bust wasexecuted 
toward the end of the young King’s not very creditable 
life, and could scarcely have flattered the royal sitter. 
This work of Pilon’s remained from the time of its exe- 
cution until recently in the ancestral chateau of the Duc 
de Montmorency Laval. 


55 


MADONNA AND CHILD 
By Donatello 
FLORENTINE, 1386-1466 


The poignant drama of the relation between the 
Christ Child and His Mother filled the mind of the 
sculptor of this relief, who handled the theme with 
ever-growing intensity in the frequent repetitions of 
the subject which every artist of the time was called 
upon to execute. Donatello was a prophet in his 
generation and his work has an austere strength and 
a deep poetic quality found only in the creations of 
supreme masters. His Madonnas are imbued with 
mingled tragedy and tenderness, qualities which 
in this example are reflected to the full. The Altman 
relief, of terracotta painted and gilded, may be 
ascribed to that period toward the middle of the 
fifteenth century when he was in Padua executing 
his superb sculptures for the Church of S. Antonio. 
The Altman relief was at one time attributed to 


MADONNA AND CHILD 


By Luca della Robbia 


SauLrr rT URE--FOURTH ROOM 125 


Michelozzo, the contemporary and fellow-workman— 
although scarcely the equal—of Donatello, but the 
attribution to the greater artist is now generally 
accepted. The relief, which is enclosed in a charac- 
teristic frame of the period, was formerly in the 
collection of Rodolphe Kann in Paris. 


56 
MADONNA AND CHILD 


By Luca della Robbia 
FLORENTINE, 1399-1482 


This charming group, in its fine simplicity and un- 
pretending beauty, is excelled by few works of those 
Florentine modelers whose enameled terracottas rival 
the more pretentious marble sculptures of the time. 
This Madonna is definitely accepted as the work of 
Luca della Robbia, who with his kinsmen, Andrea and 
Giovanni, gave the family name to this variety of 
sculpture. The white enameled surface of our group is 
unrelieved by color except for touches of manganese 
on the eyes of Mother and Child and the black in- 
scription on the scroll, the Latin equivalent for “I am 
the Light of the World.” 

57 
MADONNA AND CHILD 
By Antonio Rossellino 
FLORENTINE, 1427-1478 
The charm of sentiment and fine artistry distin- 


guishing all Florentine sculpture of the fifteenth cen- 
tury are present to a high degree in this marble relief 


126 THE ALTMAN COUL2G 7. 


of Christ and His Mother, which represents one of 
the most popular Italian sculptors, Antonio Rossel- 
lino, at an especially happy moment. This artist 
made many Madonnas, and illuminated them all with, 
his understanding of the humanity in the tender re- 
lationship between the divine Mother and Son. The 
Madonna in the Altman bequest, which was formerly 
in the possession of the Conti Alessandri in Florence 
and later in the Hainauer Collection, is a well-known 
work of the master, and resembles a number of simi- 
lar reliefs from his chisel in the museums of Europe. 
The fine gradations of the modeling and the arrange- 
ment of the light drapery are characteristic of the 
artist, as are the quiet grace of the figures and the 
meditative abstraction with which they disregard 
the beholder. The old painted frame, the mellow 
color of the marble itself, and the traces of pattern 
work in gold which at one time covered the whole 
relief, add additional charm to an unrestored example 
of Renaissance art. 


58 
THE YOUNG SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST 


By Donatello 
FLORENTINE, 1386-1466 


Of this beautiful relief there is a better-known 
version in sandstone existing in the National Museum 
in Florence. The Altman relief is in stucco. The 
relation between these two reliefs is an interesting 
question. The Altman stucco may be the first es- 
say of Donatello, from which the Bargello version 


verery ETT CPE ROE 
ate ¥ 


5b AGE OLE cE DE 


nem ee a ae 


54 tapi abasic 


57 
MADONNA AND CHILD 


By Antonio Rossellino 


Pee Ee FOURTH ROOM = § 127 


in less workable stone was afterward made. The 
two differ slightly in details of the features and 
drapery, and materially in the ornamentation of the 
background, the stucco being the more elaborate in 
its setting. In feature and expression the relief in 
Florence is gentler and less tense than this, which 
has in it something of the exaltation and solemnity 
with which the young Saint John must have foreseen 
his future as a prophet. The parted lips and the 
wide, fixed eyes have here scarcely the charm of the 
dreamy Bargello youth, but they evidence, perhaps 
all the more, Donatello’s insight into the minds of 
saints and heroes, and his own august nature. The 
relief was formerly in the collection of Maurice Kann 
in Paris. 


ao 


THE YOUNG SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST 
By Mino da Fiesole 
FLORENTINE, 1430-1484 


Almost every artist evolves a type of face which 
he repeats throughout his work, and it is interesting 
to trace between the two sculptures by Mino da 
Fiesole in the Altman bequest similarities in general 
conception and in detail, even though one is a por- 
trait and the other an imaginative presentation of a 
sacred personage. Despite the fact that age is rep- 
resented in the bust of a priest and youth in the head 
of Saint John, both faces have the same pointed oval 
outline, the same sensitive nose, and the same round 
eyes with lids overlapping at the corners. The bust of 


128 THE ALTMAN COLLEQTTa 


the young Baptist was formerly the property of the 
Conte Rasponi Spinelli of Florence. Alert in expres- 
sion, delicately modeled, it is a charming example of 
Florentine sculpture in the second half of the fif- 
teenth century. 
60 
BUST OF A YOUNG MAN 
By Hans Tilman Riemenschneider 
SOUTH GERMAN, 1468?-1531 


The gentle, dreamy melancholy that distinguishes 
this bust of a youthful, unidentified man, probably 
a saint, is typical of Riemenschneider’s sculpture. 
In the work of this-great master of the school of 
Wiirzburg, a feeling for ideal beauty tempers the 
preoccupation with dramatic expression and the 
forceful realism that characterize in general the 
Franconian school. The Altman bust, formerly in 
the Schreiber Collection in Esslingen, Wiirtemberg, is 
carved in wood, the material most employed by the 
German sculptor of the Gothic period, and retains 
much of the original painting with which the carving 
was completed. 

61 


JULIUS CAESAR 
In the manner of Antonio Rossellino 
FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY 


As is said in referring to the Madonna and Child, 
No. 66, Rossellino, the sculptor whose influence may 
be seen in this bust, chose rather to depict the gentler 
aspects of character than the more heroic. In this 


oo 
THe YOUNG SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST 


By Mino da Fiesole 


4% 


4 


s 


Pee eT EO OOU RTH ROOM 129 


imagined portrait the world’s conqueror has the face 
of a speculative philosopher but scarcely that of a 
Captain of the Hosts. The fine modeling of the 
features and the dignity in pose of the head are char- 
acteristic of Rossellino’s day and of his immediate 
followers. Such portrait-busts of the heroes of an- 
tiquity, as well as other sculptures with classical 
subjects, were much in demand during the Renais- 
sance to satisfy the ambitions of collectors avid for 
Greek and Roman marbles, but unable to discover a 
supply of original specimens sufficient for their needs. 
__In this bust the handling of the marble, the classical 
conception of the whole, and the correctness of the 
details of armor and ornament show how closely the 
sculptors of the Middle Renaissance had studied the 
ancient examples of Roman work, and how well they 
had blended the rediscovered classical tradition with 
the poetic feeling of theirown day. At one time the 
piece formed part of the collection of Maurice Kann 
in Paris. 


62 AND 63 


VULCAN AND VENUS MARINA 
By Tiziano Aspetti 
VENETIAN, 1505-1607 
The ornate decoration of this pair of monumental 
andirons is typical of the sumptuous bronzes of util- 
itarian character produced at Venice in the period of 
the High Renaissance, when the greatest sculptors of 
the time did not consider it beneath their dignity to 
make such objects as andirons, mortars, and inkwells. 


130 THE ALTMAN COL) Bia 


and brought to such tasks the full measure of their 
genius. Alessandro Vittoria, one of the most cele- 
brated sculptors of the Venetian school, is the author 
of the pair of andirons described under Nos. 64 and 
65. Tiziano Aspetti, to whom is attributed the other 
pair of andirons in the collection, is less widely known 
than Alessandro, but he holds a distinguished rank 
among the sculptors of his time, and excelled in the 
production of small bronzes in a graceful and ani- 
mated style. 


64 AND 65 


PEACE AND WAR 
By Alessandro Vittoria 
VENETIAN, 1525-1608 


These figures of Peace and War, together with their 
elaborate bases, once formed part of andirons similar 
to the complete pair, Nos. 62 and 63, on the 
south wall of this room. They are finer, however, 
in execution, and challenge comparison with any 
bronze works of the period. They are by Alessandro 
Vittoria, the closest pupil of Sansovino. Vittoria 
did a large amount of architectural and decorative 
sculpture; among the Venetian sculptors of the clos- 
ing period of the Renaissance, he is conspicuously the 
leader. It is not easy to differentiate the fluid style 
of these later masters, but the superior merit of this 
pair of andirons fully justifies their attribution to 
Vittoria himself, 

The earlier taste for allegory still survived at the 
end of the Cinquecento, but chiefly as an excuse for 


BUST OF A YOUNG MAN 
By Hans Tilman Riemenschnetder 


Meee URE FOURTH ROOM IP3I 


giving names to works of art which were otherwise 
without very definite characterization. The vague 
way in which the attributes of these two symbolical 
figures are assembled indicates how much more in- 
terested the sculptor was in making graceful stat- 
uettes than in expressing anidea. Thecolor of these 
two figures is typical of the patina and added charm 
which age and careful usage bring to the surface of 
bronze. 

Bah >: 66 AND 67 

Par VENUS AND NEPTUNE 

By Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain 
FRENCH, 1710-1795 


The easy grace and flowing lines of this pair of 
statuettes distinguish them as works which could 
have been produced in no less sophisticated a period 
than the eighteenth century in France, although the 
figures have a statuesque quality reminiscent of the 
bronzes of the High Renaissance. They were made 
probably about 1740 or 1750, but reflect the stately 
tastes of the earlier Regency rather than the inconse- 
quential lightness of the contemporary rococo. Alle- 
grain was the brother-in-law of Pigalle, and highly re- 
garded in his own day. 


68 
TRITON 
By Adriaen de Vries 
DUTCH, 1560-1603 
Adriaen de Vries worked in Italy, Bohemia, and 
Germany. As a pupil of Gian Bologna, De Vries 


1 32 THE ALTMAN COLLECTIOR 


adopted an Italian manner which had in it but little 
trace of Teutonic character. Besides numerous im- 
posing works carried out at Prague for Rudolph II 
and at Vienna, he made two fountains of Hercules 
and Mercury, at Augsburg, wherein he followed the 
example of his master in using the familiar figures of 
allegory and classical tradition, combined with prodi- 
gal generosity and executed in a full and splendid 
style. The bronze Triton may be a study for one of 
the auxiliary figures in such a fountain. 


Sixth Room 
69 


PORTRAIT OF A PRIEST 
By Mino da Fiesole 
FLORENTINE, 1430-1484 


All Florentine sculptors of the fifteenth century 
delighted in portraiture, and Mino da Fiesole, one 
of the most appreciated among them, began his 
career by making portrait-busts, from which he 
passed to the larger and more monumental works 
for which he is famous. A considerable proportion 
of his important sculptures are monuments for great 
prelates and nobles, of which a number still exist in 
the churches of Florence and Rome. They generally 
include a portrait-bust or figure of the deceased, and 
it is probable that the relief of an unknown priest in 
the Altman Collection originally formed part of such 
a memorial. It was placed in a circular frame or 
medallion and can scarcely be fairly judged without 


PEACE 
By Alessandro Vittoria 


SCULPTURE—SIXTH ROOM _ 133 


its setting, but its strong characterization and fine 
modeling are obvious without the further definition 
of any frame. The marble was formerly in the 
Hainauer Collection. 


70 
BUST OF A MAN 
Roman, first century B.c. to first century A.D. 


_/ Such artistic genius as the Romans possessed found 
its expression in realistic portraiture rather than in 
more imaginative works; for the Roman mind could 
grasp the practical facts of an existence, the poetical 
and fanciful aspects of which it could only partly 
apprehend. Much of Roman art is an echo and repe- 
tition of the more vital Greek expression, save in 
those instances where the Roman sculptor worked 
directly from the living model and concerned himself 
only with making an exact replica in bronze or mar- 
ble of the subject set before his eyes. Further than 
that he could rarely go; but the extent to which he 
excelled in the art of portraiture is illustrated by the 
impressive Bust of a Man in the Altman Collection. 
It represents the transition period in Roman art be- 
tween the first century sB.c. and the first century 
A.D., when traces might be discerned of an idealizing 
tendency borrowed from Greece, a tendency which 
had not yet, however, perverted the native Roman 
realism that gives the portrait its lifelike character. 
The ivory with which the eyeballs are inlaid con- 
tributes greatly to this effect, especially when one 
imagines the bronze of the flesh in its original golden 


134 THE ALTMAN COLLECT Gs 


color; and with the iris and pupil, which have dis- 
appeared, inlaid in lapis or other material, the lifelike 
quality must have been still further accentuated. 
The loss of these details and the removal of a portion 
of the ancient patina are the only injuries which 
the portrait has undergone. 


ot 
CHARITY 
By Jacopo Sansovino 
FLORENTINE, 1486-1570 


Illustrating within its small compass the most 
conspicuous merits of Venetian sculpture of the 
period of the High Renaissance, this beautiful group 
in terracotta, painted to resemble bronze, is an espe- 
cially happy example of the work of the Florentine 
architect and sculptor Sansovino who, after 1527, 
settled at Venice where for the rest of his long life he 
held a position of leadership in the arts. Sansovino’s 
sculpture is characterized by a genuine feeling for 
loveliness and elegance combined with the stately 
manner which the devotion to classical antiquity 
imposed upon the artists of his time. Even in so 
small a group as this Charity one is impressed with 
the splendid grace of the superhuman beings he strove 
to create. The terracotta was probably a sketch 
for a larger figure; a heroic group depicting the same 
subject, but with a different handling, still exists in 
the Church of S. Salvatore at Venice. Interesting 
to compare with the Altman terracotta is a bronze 


a li 


CHARITY 
By Jacopo Sansovino 


/ 


j 


Potent URE—SIXTH ROOM 135 


statuette of the Virgin and Child, a work only slightly 
larger than the Charity, which the Museum acquired 
by purchase in 1910 (exhibited in Gallery C22). 


72 
THE VIRGIN ANNUNCIATE 
By Benedetto da Maiano 
FLORENTINE, 1442-1407 


‘his terracotta is the sketch Benedetto made for 
the figure of the Blessed Virgin in the famous altar- 
piece which he executed in the church of Monte 
Oliveto at Naples, whither he went from Florence, 
about 1485, to complete an unfinished work of 
Antonio Rossellino’s. The altarpiece is probably 
Benedetto’s masterpiece, but whatever its obvious 
merits, no finished marble could have the spontaneity 
and directness of a model made under the impetus 
of a first idea, while the sculptor’s inspiration 
was fresh and his interest unflagging. A comparison 
between this terracotta and the finished altarpiece 
shows in the latter a relaxed line and a senti- 
mentality which in this charming version of the 
same figure are not apparent, since Benedetto’s ten- 
dency towards oversweetness is here well restrained 
and his skill unmarred by any of the faults of 


taste into which he sometimes slipped. The terra- 


cotta still retains its original polychrome surface, 
which is free from repaint. It was long in the 
possession of the Spinelli family of Borgo San 
Sepolcro. 


1336 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 
Seventh Room 


73 
BACCHUS AND A NYMPH, WITH CUPID 
By Claude Michel, called Clodion 
FRENCH, 1738-1814 


In this group, as in The Intoxication of Wine, 
No. 74, Clodion’s happy paganism is expressed with a 
sophistication thoroughly characteristic of the cen- 
tury which produced him. His knowledge of form and 
his especial aptitude for the depiction of children 
are shown in the laughing Cupid who attends the 
Bacchic revelers, while the firm, round limbs and 
delicately modeled bodies of the two chief figures of 
the group are as convincingly alive as any substance 
not flesh and blood can be. The group was formerly 
the property of Lord Wemyss in London. 


74 
THE INTOXICATION OF WINE 
By Claude Michel, called Clodion 
FRENCH, 1738-1814 


Clodion and Houdon are today held in almost equal 
honor, although the former must always be remem- 
bered as an artist who did a small thing consum- 
mately well, whereas the latter’s genius extended over 
a far larger field. The work of the one is an expres- 
sion of the unrepentant sensuousness of the elgh- 
teenth century, that of the other represents the grave 
but by no means gloomy attitude of the ph 
ing intellectuals of the os 


74 
THE INTOXICATION OF WINE 


By Claude Michel, called Clodion 


we 
ty 


eee eee he oO EVEN TH: ROOM 137 


No artist ever excelled Clodion in complete mas- 
tery over his medium, and in the manipulation of the 
terracotta in which he preferred to work he was 
unique. The material lends itself to a particularly 
lifelike texture and his dancing nymphs and satyrs 
are always splendidly alive and young. The group 
of the Bacchante and Satyr is one of Clodion’s large 
and important works, and is signed by him ‘‘Clo- 
dion.” It was formerly in the collections of Horace 


de Gundbourg and Jacques Doucet in Paris. 
=) 


7) 


MERCURY TYING HIS SANDAL 
By Jean Baptiste Pigalle 
FRENCH, 1714-1785 


Pigalle was one of the most masculine of the eigh- 
teenth-century sculptors, and in spirit belongs more 
to the days of Louis XIV than to the less grandilo- 
quent time of that monarch’s successor. Pigalle had 
great influence on the next generation of sculptors, 
and is considered to rank among the most eminent 
artists of France. This terracotta shows his strength 
and facility, and reveals how much nearer his sym- 
pathies were to the exuberance of baroque art than 
to the restrained classicism which began to appear 
in sculpture toward the middle of the eighteenth 
century. This Mercury Tying his Sandal is the first 
sketch for the marble of the same subject executed 
by Pigalle as his “diploma piece” on his reception 
into the Academy in 1751, and now in the Louvre. 


138 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


The terracotta model the sculptor bequeathed to his 
son, by whom it was presented to a Registrar of the 
Tribunal of the Revolution, whose family retained it 
until 1901, when it passed into the hands of the 
Comte de Bryas. From this source it was obtained 
by Mr. Altman. 


76 
VENUS INSTRUCTING CUPID 


By Etienne-Maurice Falconet 
FRENCH, 1716-1791 


Falconet was one of those sculptors of the elgh- 
teenth century who won fame by his exquisite 
miniature sculpture, and although his ideas were lim- 
ited to a small compass and his handling without 
variety, he achieved within his limitations a high 
perfection and a lasting popularity. His little groups 
of Venus and the infant Cupid, of which this is a 
typical example, are invariably charming in fancy 
and graceful in design. 


77 
LOUISE BRONGNIART 
By Jean Antoine Houdon 
FRENCH, 1741-1828 


Houdon’s portrait-busts of children are among his 
most successful works, since fondness for his small 
sitters led him to put especial devotion into any 
subject in which children had a part. Many of these 
vivacious portraits are of members of his own large 
family. Of the sitter for the marble bust in the Altman 


SCULPTURE—SEVENTH ROOM 139 


Collection, however, nothing is known save that she 
was very pretty, that her name is said to have been 
Louise Brongniart, and that her portrait is a masterly 
example of the sculptor’s art. The bust formerly be- 
longed to M. Mialet in Paris. 


78 
feteoBA LHER. 


LOE By Jean Antoine Houdon 
FRENCH, 1741-1828 


Houdon, the pupil of Pigalle, and the great sculptor 
of the eighteenth century, has always been appreci- 
ated in this country from the time when, in the early 
days of the republic, he came to the United States 
to execute the famous portrait-statue of Washington 
for the Capitol at Richmond. There are now many 
examples of Houdon’s sculpture in American collec- 
tions, but none more beautiful than the Bather in the 
Altman Collection. The history of the statue has been 
fully related by M. Paul Vitry, Curator of Sculpture 
in the Museum of the Louvre, from whose article, 
published in Art in America for August, 1914, 
Vol. II, No. V, the following slightly abridged account 
is quoted: 

“Among the most important works of Houdon in 
America, the Bather of the Altman Collection must 
be put in the foremost rank. Together with the 
celebrated Diana of the Hermitage it is one of the 
most important and significant works in marble of 
the sculptor. But, while the Diana is characteristic 


140 THE ALTMAN COLL E27 


of the revival of taste for the classic style and the 
correctness of perfect forms (a correctness which 
often degenerated into dryness), the Woman Bathing 
is in the true French eighteenth-century spirit and 
exhibits the essentially naturalistic tendencies of 
Houdon’s genius. Although of the same date, it 
therefore offers an absolute antithesis to the Hermit- 
age statue. Half a century ago this Baigneuse was 
thought to have been lost. Anatole de Montaiglon, 
in his study of Houdon, scarcely speaks of the group 
to which it belonged, and Délerot says distinctly 
that the group was destroyed during the Revolution. 
Fortunately this was not so. In 1828, after vicissi- 
tudes the details of which are unknown to us, the 
Woman Bathing was placed by Lord Hertford in the 
gardens of Bagatelle, his Paris home, where it re- 
mained until after the death of his heir, Sir Richard 
Wallace. Coming into the market some fifteen years 
ago, it was acquired by Mr. Altman. It bears the 
date 1782 and was originally the principal figure of a 
rather peculiar work exhibited at the Salon of 1783, 
and which is also found under the head of the year 
1781 in the list of Houdon’s works which he drew up, 
about 1784, before his departure for America. The 
artist describes it as follows: ‘A naiad, life-size, in 
marble, seated in a basin bathing herself, and a 
negress, also life-size, in lead, pouring water over her 
mistress’s shoulders. Group intended as a fountain 
in the garden of the Duc de Chartres at Monceaux.’ 

“Tn the last years of the old régime this well-known 
group of the garden of Monceaux was often described 


bE BA LHER 


Houdon 


ine 


By Jean Anto 


Samet URE -—-SEVENTH ROOM I4I 


by the authors of guide books of Paris, among those 
picturesque features which the prevailing sentimental 
fashion for English gardens had caused to be placed 
in the grounds of royal and princely residences in the 
vicinity of Paris. The group, being placed out of 
doors, suffered from exposure and the negress has 
disappeared; however, there remain studies made for 
her and among them a bronzed plaster bust of a 
negress in the Museum of Soissons, which, if it is not 
_ the bust of a negro woman ‘imitating antique bronze’ 
of the Salon of 1781, may bea replica of it of a slightly 
later period. When the marble figure was placed in 
the grounds of Bagatelle, it again was exposed to the 
inclemencies of the weather, to which it owes its pres- 
ent patina and the careful restorations which it has 
undergone. The leg which had been repaired in 1793 
had again to be restored, and the foot now rests upon 
a fragment of rock which has been added to the base. 
“Notwithstanding these repairs, and the slightly 
peculiar pose which the picturesque composition of 
the group must have made appropriate, this statue is 
a most valuable and fascinating work because of the 
easy grace and beauty of the movement, and of the 
subtlety of the modeling. The head, which is less 
regular than that of the Diana, recalls somewhat 
the naturalistic figures of Allegrain, and is assuredly, 
like them, studied directly from the living model.” 


Sie 


=O 


iva wal 


¥ 


2 


xs 
‘ 
a 
KS 


ess, Pht | 


* i es 


80 
TAPESTRY, ADORATION OF THE MAGI 


Flemish, early sixteenth century 


Tapestries 


Fourth and Seventh Rooms 


Fourth Room 


N Room 4 hang three tapestries of great excel- 
| lence. The largest, No. 79—the earliest of the 
three—is a late Gothic example, made in Brus- 
sels about the year 1500, finely woven with silver- 
gilt threads among the silk and wool of which 
the fabric is composed. The tapestry, like, some 
others of its period, is divided. by architectural 
partitions into smaller fields which contain scenes 
from the life of the Blessed Virgin. In the lower 
left-hand division the Annunciation is depicted, and 
above it the Presentation of the Virgin; in the lower 
right-hand corner is the Adoration of the Magi, 
surmounted by the Visitation; while in the upper 
center is the Assumption of the Virgin with a land- 
scape below and a choir of angels above. The tapestry 
is a superb example of the golden age of the craft, 
typical in design, color, and technique of the finest 
productions of the Flemish looms. The piece was at 
one time in the Spitzer Collection and later in the 
Hainauer. 
The second tapestry in this room, No. 80, is a few 
145 


146 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


years later, dating probably from the decade between 
1525 and 1535. It represents the Adoration of the 
Magi, and was probably designed by Bernard van 
Orley, a Flemish painter who was born in 1493 and 
died in 1542. The painting of the Virgin and Child 
with Angels, No. 34, Room 3, included in the Altman 
bequest, is another work of this artist, whose char- 
acteristic method of drawing is as evident in the 
tapestry as in the finished picture. Van Orley made ~ 
several cartoons for the Brussels looms, then at their 
height. Executed by the most skilful craftsmen of the 
time, these tapestries, lavishly enriched with gold 
and silver threads, are triumphs of the weaver’s 
art. 
The third tapestry, No. 81, is also an exceptional 
specimen. The subject is the young Christ, for some 
unknown reason represented without a halo, crushing 
the eucharistic grapes into the cup of sacrifice, while 
the orb of His sovereignty rests on the table before 
Him. Framing the composition is a Latin inscription 
from the Vulgate (Ecclesiasticus, chapter L) which 
reads in translation: ‘‘He stretched out His hand in 
sacrifice and poured forth of the blood of the grape.” 
The tapestry is Flemish, dating from about the 
same time, at the end of the fifteenth or beginning 
of the sixteenth century, as the large hanging, No. 70, 
which represents scenes from the Life of the Virgin. 
The small piece, which is heavily interwoven with 
metal threads, is the finest in texture of all the 
tapestries in the collection. There are analogous tap- 
estries of this subject in the Martin Le Roy Collec- 


SI 
TAPESTRY, INFANT CHRIST, SYMBOLIZING HIS SACRIFICE 


Flemish, end of fifteenth century 


TAPESTRIES—FOURTH ROOM 147 


tion, Paris, and in the Ryerson Collection, Chicago 
(formerly in the Spitzer Collection). 


Seventh Room 


A fourth tapestry, No. 82, in Room 7, is of another 
age and of another manner, when the reproduction on 
the looms of pictorial models had superseded the 
earlier and more purely decorative tradition. The 
Altman tapestry is woven from a cartoon by Francois 
Boucher (1703-1770), whose numerous paintings 
of tender pastorals and pretty classical allegories 
record the taste of French society in the mid-eigh- 
teenth century. Asa tapestry designer Boucher was 
unrivaled in popularity. For the royal manufactory of 
the Gobelins he made cartoons for six sets of tapes- 
tries, among them a series showing the Loves of the 
Gods, which included a single hanging of Vertumnus 
and Pomona, the subject of the Altman tapestry. 
This was first used at the manufactory in 1747 at the 
King’s order but in 1'752 the Beauvais tapestry looms, 
which rivaled the Gobelins and were also supported 
by the government, received another and different 
cartoon of the same subject, which they carried out 
five times in all. The Altman example is signed and 
dated 1757 and may probably be identified with a 
piece recorded as having been made at Beauvais for a 
M. de Cuissey, to whom it was delivered in 1758. 
The subject is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 
XIV, 623 et seq., and refers to a visit paid to Pomona 
by Vertumnus, who, in order to penetrate past the 
barriers surrounding his beloved, disguised himself 


148 THE ALTMAN COLLECTION 


in the rags of an old woman and gained admission as 
afortune teller. Two large tapestries of the set of the 
Loves of the Gods, woven at Beauvais in 1754 from 
Boucher’s designs, are exhibited in one of the lace 
galleries (H18). 


Furniture 


Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh Rooms 


DPA hy, 
ry 
en | 


Car 
* 
ra 
oe 


i 


wy 


SH “oN EAR Oh MUIR, 


Ss) 
CABINET 


French Renaissance 


A Ane te een em na, 


CECE enone mye me ste men en 5 } { 


MPa, SOARS at a oe nn 


102 
CABINET 


French Renaissance 


Furniture 


Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh Rooms 


HIRTY-NINE pieces of furniture are in- 

| cluded in the Altman bequest. With the ex- 
ception of three Italian chairs, Nos. 100, 101, 

and 103, in Room 4, all the earlier specimens are 
French in origin and highly typical of the last 
phase of the French Renaissance. The three cabinets 
in Room 4, Nos. 99, 102, and 104, and three tables, 
Nos. 105 and 107, in Room 4, and No. 106, in Room 
6, form a remarkable group of furniture of this type, 
which combines a plethora of familiar decorative 
themes derived from Italian sources with a northern 
crispness and opulence of execution. Such furniture, 
where sphinxes, griffins, terminal and grotesque 
figures, carved in bold relief or in the full round, play 
the leading part in the ornamentation, is thought to 
have been made by the “‘Burgundian”’ school of 
French carvers, principally at Dijon, where the 
fountain head of the style was Hugues Sambin, a 
designer and architect who published a book of 
engravings illustrative of furniture in the year 1572, 
thereby giving his name to the fashion in furniture 
which grew out of his designs. The table, No. 107, 

15! 


152 THE ALTMAN COLE EQ 2a 


is a particularly fine example of the school, although 
the top is a modern restoration; and the cabinet, 
No. 102, is unusual in having painted ornament in 
addition to that carved in low, middle, and high 
relief. These pieces of furniture are typical of the 
sumptuous tastes of the French court under Cather- 
ine de’ Medici and her sons. 

Around the walls of Room 6 are placed twelve 
English chairs of the late seventeenth century. The 
finely carved pair, Nos. 113 and 114, date from early — 
in the reign of William and Mary, who ruled England 
from 1688 to 1702, while the six chairs, Nos. 115-120, 
are a few years later, although probably made under 
the same sovereigns. With their cane backs and 
upholstered seats and the sharply foliated carving of 
their walnut frames, these chairs show the transmu- 
tation which the contemporary fashions of the French 
court under Louis the Fourteenth had undergone in 
their passage across the Channel by way of the 
Netherlands. The carving on the set of six is similar 
to the ornament which Grinling Gibbons and his 
school were carrying out with dazzling success on 
a larger scale in mansions over the whole of England. 

In Room 7 are three chairs, Nos. 109, 110, ITT, 
of the last half of the seventeenth century. They are 
representative examples of sumptuous French furni- 
ture in the Louis Fourteenth style. Their dignified 
lines, gilded frames, and especially the pattern of the 
finely woven tapestry with which they are covered are 
in the manner of Berain, court designer to the Grand 
Monarque and indissolubly connected with the artis- 


JIUDSSIDUAY YIUAL-] 


Cath As 
col 


Pweg 


bei 


PASS rea 

+ Fem Oe AD OY 

’ nee. Ba 
& 


ese 
ase 


CHAIR, ENGLISH 
Late seventeenth century 


Pruner URE-SEVENTH ROOM 153 


tic phases of the reign. These tapestry backs and 
seats, together with the covering of the sofa, No. 112, 
were made at the royal manufactory at Beauvais, 
about 1680. The cipher monogram woven into the 
chair-backs is “P. C.,” repeated and reversed, a 
circumstance which supports the statement that 
this upholstery was formerly the property of that 
Prince de Condé and Duc de Bourbon who built 
Chantilly and left behind him one of the most il- 
lustrious names in French history. The sofa shows 
a design of apes playing with the colored wools and 
spindles used in the weaving of tapestry, such crea- 
tures being popular with designers of the day who 
were fond of creating singeries of many sorts. Inthe 
center of the seat is a monogram of the interlaced L, 
the cipher of Louis the Fourteenth, surmounted by 
the crown, an evidence that this tapestry was woven 
for one of the royal palaces. 

The table, No. 108, in this room is some thirty 
years later than the chairs and is typical of the style 
and taste of the Regency, when the use of gilded 
bronze or ormolu mounts applied to wood was a 
favorite decorative method. 


° 
es - 
wxth Room 
; ‘ a 
ll 
| 
: | 
Ny : [ . . s “ ; 
. : a 7 ; 2 4 
i ~~ : . 
ne : a 
P, e 
g Aree a! 
8 i 
5 sh , : a E 
ae See, 2 ‘ ya 
- aes ls. eure. 


Taper 
£ ’ 


Rugs 
Sixth Room 


Orient. The rugs of Babylonia and Persia 

were celebrated in antiquity because of their 
beautiful and elaborate patterns. But the produc- 
tions of these early looms have long since perished, 
and only literary records and representations on mon- 
uments tell us of their beauty. The earliest existing 
fragments of knotted rugs are Turkish in origin, and 
were found in the mosque Ala-ed-din in Konia, in 
Asia Minor; they are assigned to the thirteenth or 
fourteenth century. The Seljuk Turks who settled 
in Asia Minor were originally nomads who came from 
Central Asia, where perhaps the first knotted rugs 
were produced. From the fourteenth to the middle 
of the seventeenth century the manufacture of rugs 
and carpets steadily progressed through all the coun- 
tries of the Mohammedan world. The sixteenth cen- 
tury marks the zenith of Persian rug weaving. 

From the more primitive periods until the decline 
of the art the Persian weaves took first rank in beauty 
of color and design, but during the last century before 
the decadence set in, the factories founded in India 

157 


Ro weaving is one of the oldest arts of the 


158 THE ALTMAN COLLECT IGOR 


under the Mogul sovereigns produced rugs which 
have never been approached for their almost incredi- 
ble fineness of texture. With an innate genius for 
design the Persians subordinated every motive in 
their rugs to the general decorative effect, whereas the 
Indian weavers sought for a greater fidelity to the 
natural objects they generally chose to represent. A 
Persian rug, although it may show, as in the famous 
hunting carpets, an imaginative assemblage of men 
and beasts mingled with decorative motives derived — 
from nature or Chinese art, is always conventional in 
representation. The opposite is typical of Indian 
productions in which ordered collections of realisti- 
cally drawn plant or animal studies worthy of a herbal 
or bestiary are of frequent occurrence. The influence 
of the courts is strongly evident in the finest rugs of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which, both 
in India and Persia, were mostly woven in imperial 
factories for royal use. 

In the choice of his rugs, as with other classes of 
material, the founder of the Altman Collection 
showed his preference for work of culminative epochs 
rather than of primitive, and his fastidious insist- 
ence on perfection of technique. With one early 
exception, the sixteen rugs hung in Room 6 date from 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and include 
examples of carpet-weaving as perfect as exist in any 
museum. The individual rugs are noted in order and 
are grouped as far as possible according to period 
and place of manufacture. 

On the north wall of Room 6 is the earliest rug, 


6 


8 
RU 


G 


about 1580 


, 


1an 


Central Pers 


* 


i 
{ 
; 


SILK ANIMAL RUG 
Central Persian, second half of sixteenth century 


> 
rae Peue 


ha 


RUGS—SIXTH ROOM 159 


No. 83. It was made in North Persia at the end of 
the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century, 
and displays the conventions in design and the re- 
stricted color of the more archaic carpets. No. 84, 
the rug on the west wall of Room 6, is of the 
type known as Polonaise or Polish because it was 
formerly thought to have been made in Poland. It 
is now established, however, that such rugs were 
woven in the imperial Persian manufactories in the 
first half of the seventeenth century and were in- 
tended largely as gifts to European sovereigns from 
the reigning Shah. The colors of these carpets are 
delicate and jewel-like; gold and silver threads woven 
into the background increases the brilliancy of the 
fabric. | 

The three rugs, Nos. 85, 86, and 88, are all Central 
Persian, probably woven at Kashan, and may be 
assigned to the second half of the sixteenth century. 
They are of silk very minutely woven and represent 
in technique the acme of Persian rug-making. Inone 
square inch of each of the three there are between five 
and seven hundred hand-tied knots, and the result 
is a texture as fine and soft as velvet. No. 85 was for- 
merly in the J. E. Taylor Collection in London; 
No. 86 is notable for the Chinese symbols occurring 
in the design; No. 88 is a fine example of the animal 
carpets, so called from the beasts which figure in the 
pattern. — 

With the fragment of a carpet, No. 87, begins the 
series of Indian rugs, which includes Nos. 87, 89, 90, 
91, 92, 94, and 96. Some of these rugs are even 


160 THE ALTMAN COLVECQ@ 


finer in weave than the Persian and average from 
seven hundred to twelve hundred knots to the square 
inch, while the small fragment, No. 94, placed on the 
table under the tablet to Mr. Altman, contains the 
almost incredible number of 2,552 knots in one 
square inch of its surface. The strong colors and 
naturalistic flowers of these Indian carpets are char- 
acteristic of the Indian weaves. No. 87 is purely 
Indian in design; on the other hand, No. 92, like the 
famous carpet made at Lahore in 1634 for the 
Girdlers’ Company in London, is the Indian version 
of the Ispahan, or Herat, type of Persian rug men- 
tioned below. Most of these Indian rugs were prob- 
ably made at Lahore, the seat of the imperial looms 
during the reigns of Akbar (1556-1605) and his suc- 
cessors, Jahangir (1605-1627) and Jahan (1628-1658), 
sovereigns who brought the art of rug-making in 
India to its highest development. Under their rule, 
besides Lahore, the cities of Agra and Fathipur sup- 
ported other thriving manufactories of rugs to which 
the coarser weaves are usually attributed. 

Rug No. 93 is Persian, of about 1580, and is an 
interesting and unusually early example of the prayer 
rugs patterned after the niches set in the eastern 
wall of Mohammedan mosques. In the niche hangs 
the lamp familiar in such mosques, while the borders 
are composed of religious inscriptions of prayer and 
praise from the Koran. 

On the north wall is No. 95, a large Persian carpet 
dating from the first half of the seventeenth century 
with a repeating design of conventionalized tree 


: 89 .. 
PART OF RUG, FLOWER AND TRELLIS DESIGN 
Indian, about 1580 ~ : 


gure 


mt ee 


. < Ry a — 


ae oF Ate 
: TP eLY 4 : 


GS Nut 


= 


: 1-3 Pawel 


93 
WITH INSCRIPTION FROM THE KORAN 


PRAYER RUG 


, about 1580 


1an 


a 


North Per 


PUGS—sSIXTH ROOM 161 


motives and palmettes. No. 96, on the south wall, 
is Indian, of a slightly later date. The two remain- 
ing rugs, Nos. 97 and 98, belong to the well-known 
variety, incorrectly called Ispahan, which were 
woven at Herat in the seventeenth century. 


a 


ae A 
4 


Japan 


se Lacquer, Sword-Guards 


ee Sixth Room 


3 


@ 


Japanese Lacquer, Sword-Guards 
and Knife-Handles 


Sixth Room 


present moment is, perhaps, not held in such 

general favor as twenty years ago, but even the 
most uninterested observer cannot fail to be im- 
pressed by the high quality and impeccable work- 
manship of the specimens shown in Cases A and B 
of Room 6. These examples of enamel on wood date 
from the later phase of the craft in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries and a number of the Altman 
pieces are signed by the best-known lacquerers of the 
time, who were distinguished by super-excellent skill 
in the use of materials. Among the pieces of aven- 
turine or gold-flaked lacquer the most noteworthy 
are the long gift-box, No. 46, Case A, ornamented 
with Daimio crests and formerly the property of a 
member of the Tachibana clan; the rare O-bento-bako 
or lunch basket, No. 47, in the same case; and the 
pair of incense-holders in the forms of male and fe- 
male mandarin ducks, No. 48, Case B, symbols of 
conjugal happiness. Many of the smaller boxes 
were made for the comfits used in Cha-no-yu, or cere- 

165 


es lacquer is a form of art which at the 


166 THE ALTMAN COLLEQi 


monial tea. The black mirror case, inlaid with 
mother-of-pearl, No. 49, CAsE A, is a decorative and 
early piece following the Chinese mode of ornament, 
while the fine inro or medicine-case made to hang at 
the belt, No. 50, Case A, typifies the more boldly 
patterned lacquer of the Tokugawa period at the 
beginning of the seventeenth century. The oval box, 
No. 51, Case A, is in the style of the Liu-kiu Islands 
to the south of Japan. 

In Case A are three iron and bronze sword-guards 
of good quality, Nos. 52 and 53 having a background 
of nanako or ‘‘fish-roe”’ and dating from the early 
nineteenth century, while No. 54 1s about forty years 
older and was made for a sword belonging to some 
member of the Daté family of Sendai. The metal 
knife-handles in this case are works of the same time 
and the same craft which produced the three sword- 
guards. Most of these small objects were made 
for and preserved as delicate examples of the armor- 
er’s art, more suitable for the collector’s cabinet than 
for hard usage. Such handles were changed from time 
to time on the same blade, amateurs keeping a large 
reserve store of them for various occasions. The com- 
bination of finely wrought gold or silver ornament 
on a rugged iron ground, found not only in sword- 
guards but in much other metalwork of the period, 
was a contrast of which Japanese art in the eighteenth 
century was especially fond. 


ellaneous Obj ects 


LS 
~s 
v 


Fo 


’ 
a 
rs 


# 
- 
\ 
, 
bal 
* 
¥ 
, 
’ 

MoT 


Miscellaneous Objects 


Fourth and Sixth Rooms 


‘S [ oss Altman Collection includes a number of 
objects of varying character not already re- 

HZ ferred to. With the exception of three large 
plates in Room 4, these are exhibited in Room 6. 

The two plates, Nos. 121 and 122, Room 4, are 
Hispano-Moresque, No. 121 dating from the second 
half of the fifteenth century, No.122 from thesixteenth 
century. The third plate in this room, No. 123, is a 
sixteenth-century Urbino piece painted with a figure 
of Justice and grotesques. 

On the south wall of Room 6, plate No. 124, 1s 
Kutahia pottery of the early sixteenth century. On 
the opposite side of the room plate No. 125 is Damas- 
cus pottery, sixteenth century, and No. 126 is Per- 
sian of the seventeenth century, and was made at 
Koubatcha in the Caucasus (Daghestan). 

The globe, No. 127, is Syrian, Damascus pottery of 
the sixteenth century. A globe of this type was used 
as an ornament on the cluster of cords whereby such 
a lamp as No. 128 was suspended in the mosque. 
The lamp is of that variety of pottery often incor- 
rectly called Rhodian, but in reality made in the 
Turkish manufactories of Asia Minor. 

169 


OF THIS HANDBOOK 
5,000 COPIES WERE PRINTED 
IN NOVEMBER, MCMXIV 
5,000 COPIES WITH CORRECTIONS 
WERE PRINTED IN APRIL, MCMXV 


A SECOND EDITION OF 5,000 COPIES WITH CHANGES 
WAS PRINTED IN JANUARY, MCMXXVIII 


My 


* 


' 


